THE    CENTURY  BIBLE    HANDBOOKS 

Man,  Sin  and  Salvation 

REV.  R.  S.  FRANKS,  M.  A. 


/^.  '2  .  /O 


i^ 


PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 


BS  417  .C46  V.8 
Franks,  Robert  S. 
The  New  Testament 
of  man,  sin,  and 


b.  1871 

doctrines 

salvation 


CENTURY  BIBLE   HANDBOOKS 

General  Ep-iTOR 
Principal  WALTER  F.^DENEY,  M.A.,  D.D. 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  DOCTRINES  OF 
MAN,   SIN,   AND    SALVATION 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  DOCTRINES  OF 

MAN,   SIN,   AND 
SALVATION 


R.  S.  FRANKS,  M.A.,  B.Litt. 

SOiMETIME   SCHOLAR   OF   ST.    JOHN's   COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE  ;   THEOLOGICAl- 

LECTURER  AT   THE   FRIENDS*   SETTLEMENT   FOR   RELIGIOUS 

AND   SOCIAL  STUDY,  WOODBROOKE,    BIRMINGHAM 


c^v.^'-  ^  ^"''5?/^ 


HODDER   AND   STOUGHTON 

NEW    YORK 

1909 


PREFACE 

The   special  lines,  upon  which   this   short   treatise  is 
written,  are  as  follows  : — 

1.  The  delineation  of  the  New  Testament  doctrines 
of  Man,  Sin,  and  Salvation  is  based  upon  a  statement 
of  the  corresponding  doctrines  in  the  Old  Testament 
and  later  Jewish  writings.  The  New  Testament  con- 
ceptions are  so  rooted  in  this  previous  thought,  that 
they  are  not  clearly  intelligible  without  a  knowledge 
of  it. 

2.  The  guiding  thread,  which  is  followed  in  the 
whole  presentation,  is  the  history  of  the  doctrine  of 
salvation.  Without  a  doctrine  of  salvation  religion 
cannot  exist.  It  is,  however,  possible  to  have  a  doctrine 
of  salvation  apart  from  the  idea  of  sin,  as  is  the  case  in 
the  earliest  Hebrew  religion.  And  a  doctrine  of  salva- 
tion from  sin  may  exist  with  little  or  no  explicit  doctrine 
of  sin,  as  is  the  case  with  many  New  Testament  writers. 
A  doctrine  of  man  is  still  less  always  to  be  found 
explicitly  developed. 


viii  PREFACE 


3.  Special  attention  is  devoted  to  the  question  of 
the  future  or  eschatological  salvation.  This  corresponds 
to  the  importance  which  the  idea  of  the  future  salva- 
tion possesses  in  the  actual  history  of  the  doctrine.  It 
is  by  passing  through  the  eschatological  stage  that  the 
idea  of  salvation  becomes  spiritualised. 

4.  The  arrangement  followed  in  the  presentation  of 
the  Old  Testament  doctrine  is  based  upon  the  generally 
accepted  principles  of  Old  Testament  criticism.  For 
the  order  of  the  later  Jewish  literature  I  have  followed 
the  article  "  Eschatology  "  by  Charles  in  the  "  Encyclo- 
psedia  Biblica,"  to  which  I  would  here  express  my  deep 
obligation.  As  regards  the  New  Testament,  the  arrange- 
ment is  based  upon  the  following  principles : — 

(a)  The  teaching  of  Jesus  is  first  dealt  with  upon  the 
basis  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels. 

(d)  This  is  followed  by  a  view  of  the  doctrine  of 
primitive  Jewish  Christianity,  founded  upon  the  speeches 
of  Peter  in  Acts. 

(c)  After  this  follows  the  doctrine  of  Paul,  based 
upon  those  epistles  now  very  widely  agreed  upon  as 
his.  The  Pastoral  Epistles,  as  being  too  uncertainly 
Pauline,  are  left  over. 

(d)  The  doctrine  of  the  remaining  New  Testament 


PREFACE  ix 


writings,  excepting  the  Gospel  and  Epistles  of  John, 
but  including  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  is  next  introduced, 
these  writings  being  regarded  as  representing  the 
common  Christianity  of  the  early  Church  contemporary 
\\ith  and  subsequent  to  Paul,  and  as  partly  preserving 
the  lines  of  the  primitive  Jewish  Christianity,  partly 
showing  the  influence  of  Paulinism,  and  partly  develop- 
ing along  fresh  lines  of  their  own. 

(e)  Last  of  all,  the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  and  Epistles 
of  John  is  treated,  representing  the  re-statement  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  in  the  light  of  the  whole  later  develop- 
ment of  doctrine,  and  thus  completing  the  history. 

R.  S.  Franks. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT I 

II.    THE    LATER    JUDAISM 28 

III.    THE     TEACHING     OF      JESUS      ACCORDING     TO 

THE    SYNOPTIC    GOSPELS        .            .            .  42 

IV.  THE   SPEECHES    OF    PETER    IN    THE   ACTS           .  78 

V.  THE    THEOLOGY    OF    PAUL        .            .            .            .  80 
VI.    THE    PASTORAL    EPISTLES         .            .            .            .137 

VII.    I.    PETER        .......  141 

VIII.    HEBREWS .  146 

IX.    THE    APOCALYPSE 154 

X.    THE    EPISTLE    OF   JAMES  .  .  .  -157 

XI.    JUDE    AND    II.    PETER 160 

XII.    THE    GOSPEL    AND    EPISTLES    OF    JOHN     .            .  162 

INDEX              . 180 


MAN,    SIN,   AND   SALVATION 

CHAPTER    I 
THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

§  I.  THE  IDEAS   OF   SALVATION  AND   SIN   IN 
EARLY   HEBREW   RELIGION 

The  primary  idea  of  salvation  in  the  Old  Testament 
is  that  of  present  deliverance  from  all  the  ills  and 
troubles  of  the  world.  We  find  the  idea  in  the  earliest 
stage  of  Old  Testament  history,  and  it  continues 
throughout  its  progress,  though  other  conceptions  are 
superimposed  and  become  more  prominent.  Yahweh, 
the  national  God  of  Israel,  saves  His  people  out  of  all 
their  calamities  and  distresses  (I.  Sam.  x.  19).  In  the 
notion  of  Yahweh  as  the  Saviour  of  Israel  are  implied 
(a)  the  idea  of  His  power  to  help  or  save,  and  (^)  His 
interest  in  and  goodwill  towards  His  people. 

Since    the    chief    danger    imperilling    the    national 


2        MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

existence  was  that  of  enemies,  Yahweh  appears  espe- 
cially as  the  deliverer  of  Israel  from  national  foes.  If 
He  saves  His  people  through  a  human  representative 
(I.  Sam.  ix.  i6;  Judges  iii.  9,  15),  He  is  still  Himself 
the  true  Saviour  of  His  people  (II.  Sam.  iii.  18). 

The  idea  of  salvation  we  are  considering  is,  how- 
ever, not  merely  a  negative  one,  not  merely  that  of 
deliverance  from  ills  and  troubles.  It  implies  also  the 
idea  of  the  safety,  security,  and  welfare  into  which 
Yahweh  by  His  deliverance  brings  His  people.  From 
this  point  of  view  salvation  or  deliverance  is  practically 
synonymous  with  prosperity  (Ps.  cxviii.  25). 

In  the  salvation  of  the  nation  is  included  that  of 
the  individual.  He  in  the  earliest  idea  is  chiefly  re- 
garded as  a  part  of  the  nation,  who  shares  in  its  good 
or  ill  fortune,  to  whom,  therefore,  the  deliverance  and 
prosperity  of  the  nation  means  his  own  deliverance  and 
prosperity.  This,  however,  does  not  preclude  the  par- 
ticular help  of  Yahweh  towards  an  individual  in  special 
circumstances  (I.  Sam.  xxiv.  15).  But  Yahweh's  first 
concern  is  with  His  people:  only  secondarily  does  He 
concern  Himself  with  its  individual  members. 

In  general,  salvation  is  confidently  expected  from  the 
national    God.       Yahweh's    normal    goodwill    towards 


IDEAS    OF    SALVATION    AND    SIN     3 

Israel  is,  however,  liable  to  vicissitudes.  For  a  season 
He  may  be  wroth,  and  His  power,  instead  of  being 
manifested  in  the  deliverance  of  His  people,  may  be 
shown  in  their  discomfiture.  This  wrath  of  Yahweh  is 
dread  and  terrible,  and  it  is  sometimes  manifested  for 
no  apparent  cause  (II.  Sam.  xxiv.  i).  Most  frequently, 
however,  the  wrath  of  Yahweh  is  due  to  sin,  either  the 
sin  of  the  whole  nation,  or  of  some  individual  member 
or  members  of  it.  Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  will 
of  Yahweh,  which  will  in  general  is  made  known  in 
the  religious  and  social  order  of  His  people. 

Yahweh  manifests  His  displeasure  against  sin  by 
the  sending  of  calamities  (II.  Sam.  xxi.  i ;  Judges  iii.  8). 
In  view  of  the  solidarity  of  the  nation,  the  sin  of  an 
individual  may  be  visited  upon  the  nation  (Josh.  vii.  i) : 
a  special  visitation,  however,  may  overtake  the  individual 
and  his  family  (I.  Kings  xvi.  34).  Future  generations, 
whether  of  the  nation  or  of  a  particular  house,  may 
also  suffer  for  the  sin  of  their  ancestors  (Exod.  xx.  5). 

In  these'  cases,  where  Yahweh's  anger  is  due  to  sin, 
the  calamities  that  follow  from  it  are  the  punishment 
of  the  sin.  Yahweh  does  not,  however,  always  punish 
sin.  He  may  withhold  His  anger,  either  for  a  time  or 
altogether.     He  may  overlook  or  forgive  the  sin.     To 


4        MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

this  end  intercession  is  made  to  Him  (Gen.  xx.  7),  or 
propitiatory  sacrifices  are  offered  (II.  Sam.  xxiv.  25), 
or,  again,  the  national  guilt  is  purged  by  the  cutting  off 
of  the  guilty  member  from  the  people  (Josh.  vii.  25). 
In  such  cases  Yahweh  may  relent  from  His  wrath,  and 
again  become  the  Saviour  of  His  people,  things  being 
thus  restored  to  their  normal  condition. 


§2.    THE  DAY  OF  YAHWEH 

In  the  period  of  the  divided  kingdom  there  seems 
further  to  have  been  added  to  the  primary  conception 
of  present  salvation,  the  idea  of  a  future  salvation. 
During  the  struggles  of  Israel  with  the  foreign  powers 
round  about,  it  appeared  sometimes  as  if  Yahweh  had 
ceased  to  be  the  Saviour  of  His  people;  nor  did  the 
national  conscience  accuse  itself  of  sin  against  Him 
as  the  cause  of  His  displeasure.  On  the  contrary,  all 
the  rites  of  religion  were  punctiliously  observed,  sacri- 
fices were  abundantly  offered  (Amos  iv.  4,  5,  v.  21-23), 
and  the  people  found  no  reason  for  the  loss  of  Divine 
favour.  In  spite  of  all  appearances  to  the  contrary, 
they  felt  sure  that  Yahweh,  the  God  of  Hosts,  was 
with  them  (Amos  v.  14).     Their  confidence  in  Yahweh's 


THE    PRE -EXILIC    PROPHETS     5 

help  expressed  itself,  therefore,  in  the  idea  that  He 
would  soon  signally  intervene  on  their  behalf,  rout  all 
their  enemies,  and  establish  the  nation  in  complete 
security  and  prosperity.  This  future  day  of  salvation 
was  pregnantly  called  the  day  of  Yahweh  (Amos  v.  18). 

§  3.  THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  PRE-EXILIC 
PROPHETS 

We  have  first  of  all  to  notice  here  an  enlargement 
and  deepening  of  the  idea  of  God.  In  the  teaching 
of  the  great  pre-exilic  prophets  from  Amos  onward, 
Yahweh  ceases  to  be  simply  the  national  God  of  Israel, 
and  becomes  a  God  of  absolute  righteousness,  who, 
while  He  is  the  God  of  Israel,  judges  His  own  people 
upon  the  same  terms  as  other  nations  (Amos  iii.  2, 
ix.  7,  8).  By  this  change  in  the  idea  of  God  all  other 
points  in  religion  are  affected.  The  conception  of  sin  in 
particular  is  deepened.  Sin  continues  to  be,  as  before, 
a  transgression  of  the  will  of  God ;  but  as  the  con- 
ception of  God  is  now  that  of  a  God  of  absolute 
righteousness,  who  demands  nothing  short  of  right- 
eousness (Amos  v.  24),  a  severer  standard  is  applied 
to  the  judgment  of  human  actions.  The  moral 
law  in  the  fullest  sense  is  now  applied  steadily  in  the 


6        MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

estimation  of  sin :  cp.  Is.  v.  7,  as  interpreted  in  detail 
by  the  remainder  of  the  chapter.  It  would  be  a  mistake, 
however,  to  identify  the  prophetic  idea  of  sin  simply 
with  that  of  the  transgression  of  the  moral  law.  The 
religious  offences  of  rebellion  against  God  (Isa.  i.  2), 
distrust  of  Him  (Isa.  vii.  11-13),  ingratitude  towards 
Him  (Hos.  ii.  5-13),  are  also  equally  emphasised  by 
the  prophets,  and  in  Jeremiah  especially  (followed  here 
by  Ezekiel)  the  sin  of  idolatry,  the  turning  from  Yahweh 
to  false  gods,  appears  as  the  sin  of  sins  (Jer.  xi.  10; 
Ezek.  xvi.).  Offences  against  the  laws  of  ritual,  how- 
ever, which  in  the  older  Hebrew  religion  were  especially 
thought  of  as  bringing  down  the  wrath  of  Yahweh 
(II.  Sam.  vi.  7),  with  the  prophets  from  Amos  to 
Jeremiah  sink  into  the  background.  Their  attitude 
towards  ritual  is  summed  up  in  Hosea's  great  word, 
"I  desire  mercy  and  not  sacrifice"  (Hos.  vi.  6). 

The  idea  of  the  righteousness  of  Yahweh  profoundly 
affects  also  that  of  the  punishment  of  sin.  The  con- 
nection between  the  punishment  and  His  righteous- 
ness is  clearly  brought  out.  The  idea,  moreover,  of  a 
wrath  which  is  incalculable  and  inexplicable  disappears 
in  favour  of  the  regular  connection  of  sin  and  calamity. 
Calamities  are  regarded  by  the  prophets  invariably  as 


THE    PRE-EXILIC    PROPHETS     7 

the  punishment  of  sin,  and  the  only  way  which  they 
recognise  for  their  removal  is  that  of  repentance  (Amos 
V.  14  ;  Hos.  xiv.  i ;  Isa.  i.  18-20). 

In  the  teaching  of  the  pre-exilic  prophets,  the  popular 
doctrine  of  the  day  of  Yahweh  undergoes  a  remarkable 
change.  It  appears  no  longer  as  a  day  when  Yahweh 
will  manifest  Himself  in  the  destruction  of  Israel's 
enemies,  but  rather  as  a  day  when  He  will  judge  and 
punish  His  own  people  for  their  sins  (Amos  v.  18; 
Isa.  ii.  12-17). 

Beyond,  however,  this  day  of  judgment  the  prophets 
set  the  hope  of  a  future  salvation,  in  which  Yahweh  will 
show  Himself  all  that  His  people  had  hoped  for,  and 
yet  more  still.  The  fundamental  outlines  of  this  hope 
are  those  of  a  restored  kingdom,  in  which  the  security 
and  prosperity  hoped  for  by  Israel  shall  be  realised,  but 
with  the  important  addition,  in  harmony  with  the  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  the  prophets,  that  the  restored 
kingdom  shall  be  one  of  righteousness  under  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  righteous  God.  From  the  first,  however, 
there  was  a  variety  of  representation  as  to  how  the 
sovereignty  of  God  was  to  be  exercised  in  it.  Some- 
times we  have  the  idea  of  a  human  representative  or 
representatives  of  God,  through  whom  His  salvation  is 

B 


8        MAN,    SIN,  AND    SALVATION 

mediated  (Isa.  i.  28,  ix.  1-7,  xi.  1-9,  xxxv.  1-5); 
sometimes  we  have  the  conception  of  the  immediate 
sovereignty  of  God  in  His  kingdom  (Isa.  iv.  2-6). 
The  idea,  therefore,  of  a  single  representative  of  God, 
or  Messiah,  as  ruler  of  the  kingdom,  is  not  absolutely 
essential  to  the  notion  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  better, 
then,  to  speak  of  the  hope  of  the  kingdom  of  God  than 
of  the  Messianic  hope,  though  the  latter  phraseology 
has  become  usual. 

§  4.  JEREMIAH 

So  far  we  have  spoken  of  the  pre-exilic  prophets  as 
a  whole.  It  is  now  necessary,  however,  to  turn  to 
Jeremiah  in  particular,  and  to  consider  certain  ideas  of 
his,  which  profoundly  modified  the  conceptions  both  of 
sin  and  salvation.  In  the  first  place  Jeremiah  goes 
back  from  the  idea  of  sins  as  single  acts  of  transgression 
against  the  will  of  Yahweh  to  the  conception  of  "sin  in 
the  heart "  as  the  root  and  ground  of  individual  trans- 
gressions. He  establishes  the  notion  of  sinful  habit  or 
disposition.  The  sinful  disposition  characterises  Israel 
as  a  nation  (Jer.  vii.  24,  xi.  8,  xvi.  12,  xviii.  12).  But 
in  accordance  with  this  deeper  idea  of  sin  in  the  heart, 
it  follows  that  Jeremiah  regards  not  merely  the  nation 


JEREMIAH 


but  the  individual  in  his  teaching.  He  finds  the  same 
sinful  disposition  in  the  individual  Israelite,  and  calls 
not  only  the  nation  but  individuals  to  repentance  (Jer. 
xviii.  II,  XXV.  5;  xxxv.  15).  Then,  in  the  next  place, 
Jeremiah  shows  the  necessary  consequences  of  this  idea 
of  sin  in  his  conception  of  salvation.  He  first  clearly 
defines  salvation  as  salvation  from  sin  itself,  from  the  sinful 
habit  and  disposition,  and  thus  grounds  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  promised  kingdom  in  a  change  of  heart  in  its 
individual  members.  This  idea  recurs  in  Ezekiel  (see 
Jer.  xxxi.  33 ;  Ezek.  xxxvi.  28).  It  is  noteworthy  that 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  now  specially  mentioned  as  a 
blessing  of  the  future  salvation  (see  Jer.  xxxi.  34). 

This  attention  to  the  individual,  however,  raises  a 
problem.  How  far  is  the  individual  involved  in  the 
lot  of  the  nation?  Can  the  nation  be  lost,  and  the 
individual  delivered  ?  It  was  felt  by  the  men  of  Jere- 
miah's time  to  reflect  upon  the  righteousness  of  God, 
of  which  the  prophets  spoke  so  much,  that  they  should 
be  involved  in  the  fate  of  the  nation,  suffering,  as  they 
felt,  not  for  their  own  sins  but  for  those  of  their  fathers 
(Jer.  xxxi.  9).  In  answer  to  this  doubt,  Jeremiah  sets 
forth  the  idea  of  an  immediate  individual  retribution 
apart  from  the  future  salvation  of  the  nation  (Jer.  xxxi.  30). 


lo      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

This  notion  of  individual  retribution  is  further  developed 
by  Ezekiel.  The  individual  prospers  or  suffers  purely 
according  to  his  own  righteousness  or  unrighteousness. 
This  is  simply  the  ordinary  prophetic  idea  of  God's 
righteous  judgment  applied  to  the  individual  (see 
Ezek.  iii.  16-21,  xviii.  1-32). 


§  5.  THE   LAW  :  DEUTERONOMY  AND  THE 
PRIESTLY   CODE 

In  the  legal  development,  which  beginning  in  the 
time  of  the  prophets  runs  parallel  with  that  of  prophecy, 
we  have  a  similar  application  of  the  prophetic  idea 
of  God's  righteousness  in  regard  to  the  national  sal- 
vation. Deuteronomy  differs  from  the  prophecy,  to 
which  in  part  it  owes  its  origin,  in  taking  an  optimistic 
view  of  the  possibility  of  reform  in  the  nation.  It 
does  not  expect  national  prosperity  after  a  judgment  as 
the  result  of  the  free  grace  of  Yahweh ;  but  it  is  rather 
founded  on  the  idea  that  Israel,  by  properly  performing 
the  demands  of  Yahweh,  may  obtain  prosperity  at  His 
hand,  though  of  course  failure  to  perform  His  demands 
must  bring  punishment  and  national  ruin.  Compare 
the  illustration  of  this  principle  in  the  great  blessing 


DEUTERONOMY    AND    CODE      ii 

and  curse  of  Deut.  xxvii.,  xxviii.  It  is  to  be  observed 
further  that  Deuteronomy  includes  in  the  demands  of 
Yahweh  the  ritual  precepts  handed  down  by  tradition, 
which  the  prophets,  at  any  rate  as  far  as  Jeremiah,  set 
light  by.  An  important  conception,  which  is  developed 
in  Deuteronomy,  is  that  of  "righteousness  before  God," 
which  consists  in  the  performance  of  His  precepts, 
and  which  entitles  Israel  to  His  salvation.  This  idea 
is  applied  both  to  the  nation  and  the  individual  (Deut. 
vi.  25,  xxiv.  13). 

In  the  priestly  code  the  idea  of  a  legal  saving  insti- 
tution is  continued ;  but  the  end  of  the  law  as  salvation 
is  not  so  much  emphasised  as  in  Deuteronomy.  The 
chief  new  points,  however,  to  be  observed  are  the  co- 
ordination of  the  law  under  the  point  of  view  of  holi- 
ness, and  the  place  here  given  to  expiatory  sacrifice. 
The  fundamental  notion  of  holiness  is  that  of  separation, 
the  separation  of  all  that  belongs  to  religion  from  all 
that  is  secular ;  and  the  priestly  code  is  governed  by 
the  idea  that  Israel  is  to  be  a  holy  people  to  Yahweh, 
separated  from  the  heathen  by  the  observance  of  His 
precepts  (Lev.  xx.  26).  Special  importance  thus  attaches 
to  the  ceremonial  precepts,  which  far  more  than  in 
Deuteronomy  come  into  the  foreground  in  this  later 


12      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

law-book  (Lev.  xx.  24,  25).  The  priestly  code  is  there- 
fore full  of  the  idea  of  sin  as  transgression  of  the 
ceremonial  law.  It,  however,  contains  an  elaborate 
saving  institution  of  expiatory  sacrifice,  in  which  the  old 
conception  of  expiatory  sacrifice  is  applied  in  detail  to 
various  offences  (see  Lev.  i.-vii.).  (It  is  to  be  observed 
that  in  one  instance  expiatory  sacrifice  is  mentioned 
in  Deuteronomy:  see  Deut.  xxi.  1-9.)  According  to 
the  priestly  code,  however,  only  sins  of  ignorance  can 
be  expiated  by  sacrifice.  Sins  committed  with  a  high 
hand  can  only  be  purged  by  cutting  off  the  offender 
from  the  people  (Num.  xv.  28,  30). 

It  is  useless  to  look  for  a  consistent  symbolical 
explanation  of  all  the  details  of  sacrifice  in  the  priestly 
code.  Its  sanctity  and  atoning  power  rather  here 
consist  in  its  time-honoured  and  traditional  character ; 
and  it  is  probable  that  we  have  in  these  final  laws  of 
Hebrew  sacrifice  the  result  of  a  long  development,  to 
which  many  different  ideas  have  contributed.  The 
following  conceptions  may  here  be  mentioned  as  they 
find  expression  in  different  parts  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  have  influenced  New  Testament  thought. 

I.  Sacrifice  is  conceived  as  a  gift  to  God  (Exod.  xxiii. 
15.     If,  then,  the  gift  is  intended  for  the  expiation  of 


DEUTERONOMY    AND    CODE      13 

sin,  it  will  be  a  propitiatory  gift.  "  In  ancient  times 
the  idea  prevails,  that  offences  against  the  holiness  of 
Yahweh  can  be  made  good  by  a  gift  in  recognition 
of  the  guilt  incurred"  (Stade,  Biblische  Theologie  des 
alien  Testame?its,  p.  167). 

2.  Sacrifice  is  conceived  as  a  means  of  communion 
between  God  and  man,  in  that  the  victim  furnishes  a 
communion  feast,  participation  in  which  unites  the 
worshipper  to  God.  In  the  application  of  this  concep- 
tion to  expiation,  we  have  to  say,  participation  reunites 
the  worshipper  to  God.  A  special  form  of  the  idea  of 
communion  with  God  by  participation  in  the  victim  is 
the  notion  of  communion  by  participation  in  the  blood 
of  the  victim.  In  Hebrew  religion  this  does  not,  as  in 
other  ancient  religions,  appear  in  the  form  of  the  drink- 
ing of  the  blood  (see  Ps.  xvi.  4),  but  only  in  the  form 
of  the  external  application  of  the  blood.  A  particularly 
clear  case  is  Exod.  xxiv.  5-8,  where  the  blood  is  applied 
to  the  altar  (as  the  representative  of  God)  and  to  the  wor- 
shippers, thus  uniting  both  in  communion.  At  bottom 
of  this  special  connection  of  the  idea  of  communion  with 
the  blood  is  the  mystical  conception  that  the  blood  is 
the  life  (Lev.  xvii.  11).  Hence  participation  in  the  blood 
of  the  victim  means  participation  in  a  common  life. 


14      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

3.  Idea  of  expiation  by  a  substitutionary  victim. 
The  notion  is  that  by  transgression  the  sinner  has  come 
under  the  Divine  displeasure,  and  is  therefore  allowed 
to  offer  as  a  ransom  for  his  life,  which  is  thus  en- 
dangered, the  life  of  an  animal.  This  conception  is  well 
known  in  religion  outside  the  Old  Testament.  In  the 
Old  Testament  itself  we  find  it  in  Micah  vi.  7  :  "  Shall 
I  give  my  firstborn  for  my  transgression,  the  fruit  of 
my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul?"  It  is  not  certain, 
however,  whether  the  idea  is  anywhere  implied  in  the 
Old  Testament  ritual  of  sacrifice.  The  elements  in 
the  ritual,  which  seem  to  point  to  it,  are  capable  of 
a  different  explanation. 

The  ideas  of  other  nations,  however,  and  the  passage 
quoted  from  Micah,  show  that  the  notion  of  substitution 
lay  close  at  hand,  and  might  easily  connect  itself  with 
the  legal  institutions.  It  is  to  be  observed  that 
in  the  regulated  private  sacrifices  of  the  priestly  law 
(Lev.  i.-vii.),  including  the  sin-offering  and  the  guilt- 
offering,  may  be  traced  the  care  for  the  present  salva- 
tion of  the  individual  member  of  the  nation,  which  we 
have  observed  in  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel.  The  priestly 
code,  then,  aims  at  securing  the  welfare  not  only  of 
the  nation  but  of  the  individual  Israelite. 


LATER    PROPHECY 


15 


§6.  EXILIC  AND   POST-EXILIC   PROPHECY 

We  return  to  take  up  the  line  of  development  of 
prophecy,  as  it  continues  after  Jeremiah.  Here  the  im- 
portant element  is  the  richly-varied  conception  of  future 
national  deliverance,  or  the  hope  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  which  in  one  form  or  other  dominates  the  whole 
later  prophecy.  The  Messiah,  as  before,  is  not  an  in- 
variable feature  of  the  expectation.  Here  there  is  no 
change.  Very  noteworthy,  however,  is  the  alteration  in 
the  idea  of  the  judgment,  which  is  to  introduce  the  great 
salvation.  It  falls  no  longer,  since  the  exile,  on  the 
nation  as  a  whole,  which  is  conceived  by  this  great 
calamity  fully  to  have  purged  its  guilt  (Isa.  xl.  i,  2). 
The  judgment  falls  rather  upon  the  enemies  of  Israel 
(Isa.  xliii.  14,  xlvii.  1-14,  Ixiii.  1-6;  Zech.  i.  18-21), 
or  upon  the  ungodly  element  only  in  the  nation  (Isa. 
Ixv.  11-15,  Ixvi.  14-18;  Mai.  ii.  5,  iv.  i).  The  former 
conception  is  to  a  great  extent  a  reproduction  of  the 
popular  expectation  of  the  day  of  Yahweh.  But  it  is  a  new 
and  important  idea  of  the  second  Isaiah  that  this  judg- 
ment of  the  enemies  of  Israel  is  to  be  deduced,  along  with 
the  salvation  of  Israel,  from  Yahweh's  righteousness. 
Israel,  as  the  people  of  the  true  religion,  is  righteous, 


i6      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

where  the  heathen  are  unrighteous,  and  thus  receives 
vindication  at  the  hands  of  the  righteous  God ;  or  as 
the  prophet  says,  introducing  a  noteworthy  termino- 
logy, is  y/^^/z)?^^  (Isa.  xlv.  25,  1.  8;  compare  xli.  10,  11, 
liv.  17).  It  is  further  observable  that  thus  in  Isa.  xl.-lv. 
Yahweh's  righteousness  and  His  salvation  come  to  be 
almost  synonymous  (compare  Isa.  xlv.  21,  li.  5  f.). 

With  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  future  salvation,  as 
described  by  the  later  prophets,  some  further  points 
require  notice.  The  first  is  with  regard  to  the  position 
of  the  heathen  after  the  introductory  judgment.  While 
sometimes  all  the  heathen  are  destroyed  completely  (Ezek. 
xxxviii.,  xxxix.),  in  other  cases  the  conception  is  that 
they  remain  as  servants  and  tributaries  of  Israel  (Isa.  Ix. 
12,  Ixi.  5).  Yet  again  we  find  the  idea  of  the  conversion 
of  the  heathen  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God ;  so 
that  they  may  share  in  the  blessings  of  the  great  salva- 
tion (isa.  xlv.  23).  Finally  in  some  cases  we  find  a  yet 
wider  universalism,  where  the  primacy  of  Israel  dis- 
appears in  a  world-wide  kingdom  of  God  (Isa.  xix.  24, 
25 — a  late  passage).  These  latter  conceptions  are, 
however,  rather  the  exception  than  the  rule. 

Before,  however,  we  pass  on  from  the  question  of 
Israel  and  the  heathen,  we  must  notice  the  remarkable 


LATER    PROPHECY  17 

conception  of  Isa.  Hi.  i3-liii.  12,  according  to  which 
the  salvation  of  the  heathen  is  viewed  not  only  as  flowing 
from  the  grace  of  God,  but  as  mediated  by  the  vicarious 
sufferings  of  Israel.  Israel,  as  the  servant  of  Yahweh, 
bears  the  sins  of  the  nations,  and  out  of  his  suffering 
comes  their  good.  So  in  the  language  of  the  sacrificial 
ritual  it  is  said  of  him  that  his  soul  is  made  an  offering 
for  sin.  It  is  not,  however,  exactly  the  notion  of  an  ex- 
piatory victim  that  we  have  here :  at  any  rate  there  is 
no  idea  of  propitiation.  There  is  rather  the  suggestion 
of  an  ethical  interpretation  of  the  sacrificial  language. 
The  good  of  those  for  whom  the  servant  suffers  does  not 
flow  simply  from  the  mere  fact  of  his  sacrifice,  but  rather 
from  the  moral  effect  of  this  on  their  minds.  They 
are  thereby  moved  to  repentance,  acknowledging  that  the 
sufferings  of  the  servant  are  due  to  their  sins  (Isa.  Hii. 
4-6).  (For  the  general  basis  of  the  interpretation  of  this 
passage  see  Peake,  "The  Problem  of  Suffering  in  the 
Old  Testament,"  chap,  iii.) 

We  notice  further  in  the  prophecy  of  the  exile  and 
of  the  period  after  the  exile  a  tendency  to  conceive  the 
future  national  salvation  not  merely  as  an  elevation  of 
the  national  life  to  its  highest  national  capacity  but  as 
a  state  altogether  transcending  the  conditions  of  ordinary 


i8      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

earthly  life,  and  absolutely  miraculous  (Isa.  Ixv.  4-25). 
This  is  in  connection  with  a  more  transcendent  idea  of 
God  than  is  in  general  found  in  the  earlier  prophets. 
The  way  here  is  led  by  the  second  Isaiah,  to  whom 
Yahweh  is  above  all  the  omnipotent  Creator,  who  sits 
upon  the  circle  of  the  heavens,  and  to  whom  men  are  as 
grasshoppers  (Isa.  xl.  22).  The  conception  is  again 
powerfully  expressed  in  the  later  passage  (Isa.  Ixvi.  i  f.) : 
the  heaven  is  Yahweh's  throne,  the  earth,  the  footstool 
of  His  feet ;  no  house  built  with  hands  can  be  worthy 
of  Him. 

The  further  description  of  the  future  salvation  in  the 
later  prophets  repeats  the  ideas  of  their  predecessors. 
There  is  to  be  the  complete  forgiveness  of  sin  (Isa.  xliii. 
25  ;  Zech.  xiii.  i),  and  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  upon 
the  people  (Isa.  xliv.  3 ;  Joel  ii.  28,  29) ;  all  the  people 
shall  be  taught  of  God  (Isa.  liv.  13)  and  shall  be  right- 
eous (Isa.  Ix.  21).  As  regards  the  last  point,  however, 
we  have  the  difference  from  the  early  ideal  that  there 
is  a  tendency  to  substitute  for  righteousness  holiness, 
which  is  clearly  traceable  to  the  influence  of  the  develop- 
ing or  developed  law  (see  Ezek.  xl.-xlviii. ;  Zech.  xiv. 
20-21 — a  late  passage). 


FINAL    VIEW    OF    SALVATION     19 

§  7.  FINAL  VIEW  OF  SALVATION   IN  THE  OLD 
TESTAMENT 

At  this  point  we  may  now  look  back  and  sum  up  the 
final  conceptions  of  the  Jewish  Church  as  to  salvation  as  a 
whole — only  a  very  few  parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  yet  to 
be  treated  of,  being  excepted  as  looking  beyond  its  general 
horizon.  The  main  ideas  are  two.  The  first  is  that  of 
a  future  salvation  for  the  nation  proceeding  from  the 
righteousness  of  God,  the  reverse  side  of  which  is  a  judg- 
ment upon  the  enemies  of  His  true  people,  both  within 
or  without  the  community.  We  may  note  that  the 
notion  is  expressed  that  the  condition  of  the  speedy 
appearance  of  the  national  salvation  is  obedience  to 
Yahweh  (Mai.  iii.  10-12).  The  second  idea  is  that  of 
the  present  salvation  of  the  individual,  manifested  in 
Yahweh's  just  retribution  of  the  righteous  with  pros- 
perity, the  reverse  side  of  which  is  the  present  punish- 
ment of  the  wicked. 

In  the  Books  of  Psalms  and  Proverbs  we  see  how 
these  conceptions  affected  and  coloured  the  religious  life 
of  the  nation  and  the  individual.  We  see  how  ardently 
the  national  salvation  was  expected  and  longed  for 
(Ps.    ix.    19,   xiv.    7,   Ixxxv.);    how    sometimes   it   was 


20      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

joyously  anticipated  (Ps.  ii.,  xcvi.-xcviii. ) ;  and  how,  too, 
in  hours  of  national  distress  it  seemed  long  delayed 
(Ps.  xliv.,  Ixxxix.).  We  see  further  how  the  dogma  of 
individual  retribution  became  fully  established  among 
the  pious  (Ps.  i.,  xxxiv.,  and  Proverbs  passim)-,  though 
at  the  same  time  certain  Psalms  show  how  the  conflict 
of  it  with  the  facts  of  experience  was  by  some  keenly 
felt  (Ps.  xxxvii.,  xlix.,  Ixxiii.). 

It  is  to  be  added  that  we  see  in  the  Psalms  also  how 
the  deeper  and  more  inward  view  of  sin  realised  by  the 
prophets,  and  above  all  by  Jeremiah,  has  become  the 
property  of  the  nation,  or  at  least,  of  the  pious  in  it. 
We  do  not  find  a  new  doctrine  of  sin  in  the  Psalms ; 
but  a  fuller  experimental  realisation  of  its  meaning 
speaks  from  their  pages  (Ps.  xxxii.,  li.).  Equally  also 
do  the  Psalms  bring  to  view  the  deepest  and  most 
spiritual  aspects  of  the  Old  Testament  idea  of  salvation, 
especially  in  regard  to  the  individual.  If  salvation  was 
thought  of  as  prosperity  (Ps.  cxviii.  25),  this  prosperity 
was  not  valued,  at  any  rate  since  the  time  of  the 
prophets,  purely  for  its  own  sake,  but  above  all  as  the 
mark  of  Divine  favour.  This  notion  the  Psalms  bring 
clearly  to  view.  Not  in  God's  gifts  only,  but  supremely 
in  Himself,  is  the  satisfaction  of  the  desire  of  man.    The 


ANTHROPOLOGY 


soul  of  the  idea  of  salvation  is  the  communion  with  God 
therein  enjoyed  (Ps.  xxiii.  i-6,  xxvii.  4,  xliii.  3,  4, 
Ixv.  4). 

§  8.  THE  ANTHROPOLOGY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTA- 
MENT IN  ITS  BEARING  UPON  THE  CON- 
CEPTIONS OF  SIN  AND  SALVATION 

The  original  anthropology  of  the  Hebrews  had  no 
special  connection  with  the  religion  of  Yahweh,  but 
was,  on  the  contrary,  not  different  from  that  of  primitive 
tribes  in  general.  To  the  early  Hebrews  the  constitu- 
tion of  man  appeared  as  a  duality.  On  the  one  hand 
was  the  body,  or  as  the  ancient  Israelite  called  it  from 
the  animated  matter  of  which  it  was  made,  and  which 
was  common  to  man  and  the  animals,  the  flesh.  On 
the  other  hand  was  the  "  soul "  or  "  spirit,"  the  life- 
principle  inhabiting  the  flesh.  There  is  considerable 
difference,  indeed,  in  the  connotation  of  the  terms 
"  soul "  and  "  spirit "  in  early  Hebrew  psychology. 
Amongst  other  things,  the  terms  are  associated  with 
different  psychical  functions,  and  soul  is  used,  as  spirit 
is  not  used,  to  express  the  personality  (see  Charles, 
"  Eschatology,"  "  Encyclopaedia  Biblica,"  col.  1340). 
But    a    real    trichotomy    there    is    not :    ''  soul "   and 


22      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

"spirit"  alike  mean  the  life-principle,  the  departure  of 
which  from  the  body  involves  death. 

Psychical  functions  (in  particular,  intelligence),  were 
connected  with  the  heart  as  well  as  with  the  soul  or  spirit ; 
but  "  heart "  never  stands,  like  the  other  terms,  for  the 
life-principle.  As  regards  the  connection  between  the 
flesh  and  the  soul  or  spirit,  there  was  not  at  first  the 
sharp  demarcation  of  ideas  which  afterwards  grew  up. 
Flesh  was  regarded  not  as  dead,  but  as  animated  matter, 
and  "  my  flesh  "  may  equally  with  "  my  soul "  represent 
the  whole  man. 

In  the  writings  of  the  prophets,  however,  we  begin  to 
find  the  distinction  emphasised  between  man  as  flesh, 
and  Yahweh  as  spirit.  This  opposition  first  appears  in 
Isa.  xxxi.  3 :  "  The  Egyptians  are  men  and  not  God ; 
and  their  horses  are  flesh  and  not  spirit."  Here  we  have 
the  notion,  afterwards  so  fundamental  to  Jewish  religion, 
of  the  frailty  of  man  (and  beast)  as  flesh,  when  compared 
with  Yahweh,  who  as  spirit  is  exalted  above  the  world. 
This  prophetic  point  of  view  is  further  illustrated  by  the 
prophetic  narrative  of  Gen.  ii.,  where  we  have  an  account 
of  the  creation  of  man,  which  brings  to  view  the  com- 
plete dependence  of  the  life-principle  in  him  from 
Yahweh.     The  account  is  that  Yahweh  formed  man  of 


ANTHROPOLOGY  23 

dust  of  the  ground,  and  blew  into  his  nostrils  the  breath 
of  life ;  so  that  man  became  a  living  soul.  There  are, 
therefore  in  man  three  elements,  soul,  body  (flesh),  and 
spirit ;  which  last,  according  to  this  theory,  is  the  Divine 
principle  which  gives  life  to  the  soul.  This  narrative  is 
the  first  instance  of  a  real  trichotomy  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. In  the  later  account  of  the  creation  of  man, 
given  by  the  priestly  writer  in  Gen.  i.,  the  anthropo- 
morphism of  the  prophetic  narrative  is  abandoned,  and 
the  creation  of  man  is  traced  simply  to  the  fiat  of  God. 
Important  elements,  however,  in  the  priestly  representa- 
tion are,  that  man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God  (Gen.  i. 
21),  and  that  he  is  appointed  to  have  dominion  over 
the  creation  (Gen.  i.  28). 

The  influence  of  these  new  points  of  view  is  seen  in 
all  the  later  Old  Testament  literature  (see  especially 
Ps.  viii.).  What  is  above  all  important  to  us,  however, 
is  the  influence  of  the  idea  that  man  is  flesh  (in  opposi- 
tion to  the  purely  spiritual  nature  of  God),  or  that  he  is 
made  of  the  dust  of  the  earth,  upon  the  conceptions  of  sin 
and  salvation.  Not  only  is  there  deduced  from  the  there- 
with connected  idea  of  his  frailty,  his  need  of  Divine  help, 
so  that  a  potent  appeal  to  God  rises  out  of  man's  very 
weakness  (Ps.  ciii.  13,  14),  but  also  man's  sinfulness  is 


24      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

connected  with  his  being  flesh,  the  idea  of  physical  frailty 
easily  passing  over  into  that  of  moral  weakness  (Job.  iv. 
i7»  19)- 

§9.  DEATH 

The  original  Hebrew  anthropology  attributed  death 
to  the  departure  of  the  soul  (Gen.  xxxv.  18 ;  I.  Kings 
xvii.  21).  Death  is  not,  according  to  the  oldest  Hebrew 
view,  nor  indeed  according  to  the  general  view  of  the 
Old  Testament,  the  punishment  of  sin,  but  is  rather 
the  natural  lot  of  man  (Job  v.  26).  Premature  death, 
however,  is  the  punishment  of  sin  (II.  Sam.  vi.  7  ; 
Ps.  Iv.  23),  just  as  long  life  is  a  sign  of  the  favour  of 
Yahweh.  So  little  is  death  in  itself  the  punishment  of 
sin  that  even  in  the  future  age  of  salvation  men  still 
die.  The  sign  of  Yahweh's  favour  is  that  they  live 
patriarchal  lives.  Compare  Isa.  Ixvi.  20-22  :  a  hundred 
years  shall  be  reckoned  the  life  of  a  child,  or  of  a  sinner 
prematurely  cut  off. 

The  prophetic  narrative  of  the  Fall  (Gen.  iii.),  on  the 
other  hand,  does  make  death  in  general,  along  with  the 
necessity  of  labour,  the  punishment  of  Adam's  trans- 
gression. This  narrative,  however,  stands  quite  by 
itself,  and  has  exercised  no  influence  on  the  Old  Testa- 


THE  STATE  AFTER  DEATH   25 

ment  in  general.  It  is  only  after  the  completion  of  the 
Old  Testament  that  the  narrative  begins  to  exercise  the 
very  potent  influence,  which  it  has  ever  since  maintained, 
over  the  doctrine  of  sin. 


§  10.  THE  STATE  AFTER  DEATH 

Death,  according  to  the  oldest  view,  is  not  extinction ; 
but  the  personality  continues  to  exist  in  Sheol,  or  the 
under-world,  in  a  shadowy  state,  as  the  mere  phantasm 
and  ghost  of  the  earthly  self.  This  idea  has  no  con- 
nection with  the  religion  of  Yahweh,  but  is  a  survival 
from  an  early  stage  of  religion  through  which  the 
ancestors  of  the  Hebrews  must  have  passed.  Accord- 
ingly we  have  the  notion  that  Sheol  is  beyond  the  sphere 
of  Yahweh's  influence.  There  are  no  moral  distinctions 
in  Sheol :  the  good  and  the  bad  are  alike  shades  in  the 
under- world  (Job  iii.  13-19).  Nor  is  communion  with 
Yahweh  possible  to  the  shades.  His  salvation  is  not  for 
them,  but  only  for  the  living  (Ps.  xxx.  9,  Ixxxviii.  5, 
10-12;  Isa.  xxxviii.  18,  19). 

It  was  not  till  almost  the  very  close  of  the  history 
of  Old  Testament  religion  that  these  conceptions  were 
broken  through.    The  causes  were  three  in  number.    First 


26      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

must  be  ranked  the  breaking  down  of  the  dogma  of 
individual  retribution  in  the  present  life,  which  was 
seen  to  conflict  with  actual  experience.  The  righteous 
man  unvindicated  in  this  life  postulates  a  vindi- 
cation in  the  Hfe  to  come  (Job  xix.  25,  26).  The 
second  cause  of  the  change  was  the  desire  of  indi- 
vidual piety  for  communion  with  God  after  death, 
and  the  growing  sense  that  the  communion  enjoyed  in 
this  life  cannot  end  with  death  (Ps.  Ixxiii.  23-26). 
Finally  we  have  to  allow  for  the  desire  of  the  individual 
for  a  share  in  the  national  salvation.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  in  the  Old  Testament  no  complete  syn- 
thesis of  the  national  and  individual  salvation  is  arrived 
at,  but  each  stands  separately  by  itself.  We  have, 
indeed,  the  relative  synthesis  involved  in  the  notion  that 
the  judgment  which  introduces  the  national  salvation 
will  fall  not  only  upon  the  external  enemies  of  Israel, 
but  upon  the  wicked  in  Israel,  thus  separating  the  wheat 
from  the  chaff  (Ps.  i.  4-6).  But  it  is  evident  that  this 
synthesis  takes  no  account  of  those  who  die  before  the 
national  salvation  is  realised,  and  is  therefore  incom- 
plete. The  result  is  that  towards  the  close  of  the  Old 
Testament  literature,  there  appears  the  idea  of  a  resur- 
rection of  the  pious  in  order  to  share  in  the  national 


THE  STATE  AFTER  DEATH   27 

salvation.  This  is  found  in  Isa.  xxvi.  1-19,  dated  by 
Cheyne  in  334  B.C.  (see  Charles,  "  Eschatology,"  in 
"Encyclopaedia  Biblica,"  col.  1384). 

The  only  other  passage  in  the  Old  Testament  which 
speaks  of  a  resurrection  is  Dan.  xii.  2  (168  B.C.).  The 
resurrection  here,  however,  is  not  a  resurrection  of  the 
righteous,  but  also  of  the  wicked,  who  are  to  rise  to 
receive  their  reward  (viz.  shame  and  everlasting  con- 
tempt). It  is  not,  however,  all  the  righteous  or  all  the 
wicked  that  are  to  rise  again,  but  many — apparently 
the  pre-eminently  good,  and  the  pre-eminently  bad,  in 
Israel. 


CHAPTER   II 
THE   LATER   JUDAISM 

§   I.    IDEAS   OF  SALVATION,    INDIVIDUAL 
AND    NATIONAL 

The  synthesis  just  begun  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
completed  in  the  literature  between  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  in  that  important  part  of  it  known  as  the 
"apocalyptic"  literature,  to  which,  indeed,  such  parts 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  Isa.  xxiv.-xxvii.  and  Daniel 
logically  belong,  though  from  their  position  in  the  Old 
Testament  they  have  already  been  mentioned.  The 
peculiar  feature  of  apocalypse  is  that  the  advent  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  is  regarded  not  merely  as  the 
opening  of  a  new  period  in  the  history  of  the  world  but 
as  the  introduction  of  a  new  world  altogether,  a  point 
of  view  which  indeed  already  appears  in  Isa.  Ixv.  17 
(date  uncertain). 

The  resurrection  further  becomes  a  regular  feature 

in    the    expectation    of   the    kingdom    of    God,    and 

28 


IDEAS    OF    SALVATION  29 

tends  more  and  more  to  become  a  general  resurrec- 
tion, while  the  judgment  associated  with  the  coming  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  becomes  a  general  judgment. 
There  is,  however,  much  variation  in  the  individual 
representations  as  to  who  rise  and  who  are  judged. 
The  completest  synthesis  of  the  national  and  indi- 
vidual salvation  is  found  in  the  WTitings  of  the  second 
century  B.C.  The  righteous,  both  living  and  dead, 
find  complete  satisfaction  in  the  eternal  kingdom 
of  God,  established  on  the  earth  with  its  centre  at 
Jerusalem.  Its  members  eat  of  the  tree  of  life  and  enjoy 
patriarchal  lives  (Enoch  i.-xxxvi.,  before  170  ;  see  especi- 
ally XXV.  3  f .).  A  somewhat  different  picture  of  the  future 
kingdom  is  given  in  Enoch  Ixxxiii.-xc.  (i 66-1 01  B.C.). 
Here  there  is  a  new  heavenly  Jerusalem,  where  God's  true 
sheep,  the  righteous,  dwell  (see  especially  xc.  29,  34). 

In  the  first  century  B.C.,  however,  the  synthesis  thus 
attained  begins  to  break  up.  The  hope  of  an  abiding 
kingdom  upon  the  earth  is  all  but  abandoned.  Hence 
we  have  either  the  idea,  as  already  in  Isa.  Ixv.  17,  of  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  as  the  scene  of  the 
future  salvation,  to  share  in  which  the  righteous  rise 
(Enoch  xxxvii.-lxx.),  or  else  the  idea  that  the  kingdom 
on  earth  is  but  transitory,  and  that  the  final  destina- 


30      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

tion  of  the  righteous  is  not  this  kingdom,  but  heaven 
itself.  "Here,"  says  Charles,  "the  belief  in  a  personal 
immortality  has  dissociated  itself  from  the  doctrine  of 
the  Messianic  kingdom,  and  the  synthesis  of  the 
eschatologies  achieved  in  the  preceding  century  is  anew 
resolved  into  its  elements"  ("  Eschatology,"  col.  1361). 
This  idea  of  a  temporary  Messianic  kingdom  is  interest- 
ing as  the  precursor  of  the  Millennium  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse of  John. 

Finally,  in  the  first  century  a.d.,  the  breach  between 
the  eschatologies  of  the  nation  and  the  individual 
becomes  yet  wider.  The  nation  has  in  some  cases 
no  blessed  future  at  all,  but  only  the  individual,  as 
in  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  (xiii.  i  f.).  There  is  no 
hope  expressed  anywhere,  in  the  Apocalypse  to  which 
this  passage  belongs,  of  a  restored  Jerusalem. 

Where  in  this  period  a  better  future  is  expected 
for  the  nation,  it  is  only  one  of  temporary  duration, 
as  in  IV.  Ezra  (II.  Esdras)  vii.  28.  With  this  temporary 
kingdom  the  individual  has  no  real  concern.  "His 
interest  centres  round  his  own  soul,  and  his  world 
is  the  after  life-.  The  great  thought  of  the  Divine 
kingdom  has  been  surrendered  in  despair "  (Charles, 
"  Eschatology,"  col.  1366). 


IDEAS    OF    SALVATION  31 

We  return  to  consider  the  nature  of  the  national 
salvation.  It  continues  to  be  represented  along  the 
lines  laid  down  by  the  prophets,  but  with  an  increased 
transcendence  of  experience.  This  is  connected,  as 
before,  with  a  more  highly  developed  transcendence  in 
the  conception  of  God,  which  marks  all  the  writings  of 
this  age  (viz.  200  B.C.- 100  B.C.).  The  transcendence 
of  the  kingdom  appears  most  plainly  in  the  last  century 
B.C.,  where  the  dualism  between  God  and  the  world 
causes  the  general  break  up  of  the  idea  of  an  earthly 
kingdom  of  God,  the  earth  as  it  is  being  regarded  as 
unfit  for  the  manifestation  of  the  kingdom  (so  in 
Enoch  xxxvii.-lxx.).  The  apocalyptic  writers,  like  the 
prophets,  view  the  kingdom  in  general  as  complete 
prosperity  under  the  rule  of  God.  Whether  a  Messiah 
is  or  is  not  included,  still  continues  to  be  accidental. 
Thus  there  is  no  mention  of  a  Messiah  in  the  second 
century  B.C.,  except  in  Enoch  Ixxxiii.-xc.  (compare  xc. 
37).  In  the  first  century  B.C.  the  idea  of  the  Messiah  is 
prominent.  "Henceforth  the  Messiah  becomes  gener- 
ally, but  not  universally,  the  chief  figure  in  the  Messianic 
kingdom"  (Charles,  "  Eschatology,"  col.  1366).  As  to 
further  details,  some  writers  describe  the  future  happi- 
ness in  physical  and  even  sensuous  language  (compare 


32      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

the  passage  above  quoted,  Enoch  xxv.  3).  They 
develop  here,  indeed,  from  certain  descriptions  of  later 
prophecy  (as  Isa.  Ixv.  18-25),  which  similarly  describe 
the  kingdom  in  physical  terms.  Other  writers,  how- 
ever, following  rather  the  pre-exilic  prophets,  lay  chief 
stress  on  the  righteousness  of  the  kingdom  and  its 
members  (Psalms  of  Solomon,  70-40  b.c). 

The  position  of  the  heathen  in  the  Messianic  age 
varies  with  the  apocalyptic  writers  as  with  the  prophets. 
In  the  second  century  b.c.  we  find  the  view  that  all  the 
heathen  are  to  become  righteous  and  worship  God, 
or  that  only  the  hostile  heathen  are  to  be  destroyed, 
the  rest  remaining  to  serve  Israel.  In  the  first  century 
B.C.,  however,  this  favourable  view  of  the  heathen  all 
but  disappears.  (For  further  details  see  Charles,  "  Escha- 
tology,"  as  before.) 

In  the  prophets  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  is  always 
expected  from  the  power  and  grace  of  God,  though 
the  obedience  of  the  people  may  be  a  condition  of 
its  speedy  realisation  (Mai.  iii.  10).  The  same  view 
still  holds  good  in  the  apocalyptic  writers.  But  just 
as  in  the  second  Isaiah  this  idea  is  coupled  with  that 
of  the  bringing  about  of  the  kingdom  by  the  political 
triumph   of   Cyrus,    as   God's    Messiah    over    Babylon 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL    IDEAS     33 

(Is.  xlv.  1-6);  so  about  the  Christian  era  we  have  a 
political  view  of  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom 
(that  of  the  Zealots),  in  which  the  actual  realisation 
of  the  kingdom  depends  on  the  Messiah's  victory  over 
Rome.  This  view  is  illustrated  by  the  Psalms  of 
Solomon,  already  mentioned  in  another  connection. 
Against  the  view  of  the  Zealots,  however,  "  an  emphatic 
protest  was  raised  by  a  strong  body  of  Pharisees,  who 
felt  it  to  be  their  sole  duty  to  observe  the  law,  leaving 
it  to  God  to  intervene  to  defend  them  (Charles,  "  Escha- 
tology,"  col.  1372).  Instances  of  this  protest  are  found 
in  the  Assumption  of  Moses  and  in  IV.  Ezra.  Both  points 
of  view,  therefore,  have  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  time 
of  Jesus. 

§  2.  ANTHROPOLOGICAL   IDEAS   CONNECTED 
WITH   THE   FUTURE  SALVATION 

According  to  Charles  the  trichotomy  of  Gen.  ii.  seems 
to  have  left  little  mark  either  on  the  Old  Testament 
or  on  the  later  Jewish  literature.  Compare,  however, 
Ps.  xc.  3,  civ.  30,  cxlvi.  4,  which  passages  contain  the 
idea  that  the  death  of  man  (and  the  animals)  is  due 
to  Yahweh's  recalling  the  spirit  which  He  has  given 
to  Himself.     In  Ecclesiastes,  just  before  the  close  of 


34      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

the  Old  Testament,  the  further  conclusion  is  drawn 
that,  since  death  is  the  return  of  the  spirit  to  God  (xii.  7), 
there  is  no  life  after  death  (iii.  19,  21,  ix.  3,  5,  10). 
The  final  form  of  this  scepticism  is  seen  in  Sadduceeism. 

The  most  general  view  in  the  period  we  are  con- 
sidering is,  however,  in  no  way  based  on  Gen.  ii.,  but 
is  simply  the  old  Hebrew  trichotomy,  in  which  body 
is  opposed  to  soul  or  spirit.  The  soul  or  spirit  sur- 
vives death,  and  the  usual  idea  is  that  it  passes  to 
Sheol  until  the  resurrection.  Moral  retribution,  how- 
ever, takes  place  immediately  after  death.  "Sheol 
undergoes  complete  transformation  in  the  second  cen- 
tury B.C.,  and  becomes  an  intermediate  place  of  retri- 
bution for  the  righteous  and  the  wicked.  All  the  dead 
who  died  before  the  final  judgment  have  to  go  to 
Sheol"  (Charles,  "  Eschatology,"  col.  1360), 

We  have  also,  besides  Sheol,  Gehenna  or  hell,  as 
the  final,  not  the  immediate,  abode  of  the  wicked.  The 
lines  that  divide  this  from  the  penal  division  of  Sheol 
are,  however,  not  firmly  drawn ;  and,  as  time  goes  on, 
Sheol  is  more  and  more  identified  with  hell. 

There  is  considerable  variety  of  opinion  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  resurrection.  In  some  cases  it  is  simply 
the    spirits    of    the    righteous    dead    that    are    raised 


ALEXANDRIAN    JUDAISM         35 

(Enoch  ciii.  4).  In  other  cases,  however,  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body  is  affirmed  (II.  Mace.  vii.  11,  xiv.  46). 
The  difference  between  the  two  views  is,  however, 
modified  by  such  statements  as  that  the  new  body  is  a 
garment  of  light,  and  that  those  who  possess  it  are 
angelic,  or  again,  that  the  righteous  are  to  rise  vestured 
with  the  glory  of  God  (compare  Enoch  li.  4,  Ixii.  i  f.), 
equal  to  the  stars,  and  changed  from  beauty  into 
loveliness,  and  from  light  into  the  splendour  of  glory 
(li.  10)  j  they  shall  even  surpass  the  angels  (li.  12). 


§  3.   ALEXANDRIAN  JUDAISM 

So  far  we  have  been  tracing  the  views  of  Palestinian 
Judaism.  In  the  Judaism  of  Alexandria,  however, 
under  Greek  influence,  further  developments  take  place. 
The  idea  of  the  resurrection  is  exchanged  for  the  Greek 
conception  of  the  immortality  of  the  spirit;  and  this 
exchange  is  accompanied  by  the  adoption  of  the  Greek 
dualism  between  matter  and  spirit,  according  to  which 
matter  is  wholly  evil,  and  therefore  the  body  is  to  the 
soul  a  prison  (Wisd.  ix.  15). 

The  righteous  spirit,  then,  enters  on  a  blessed  immor- 
tality immediately  upon  death  (Wisd.  iii.  1-4,  iv.  7,  10). 


36      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

There  can  be  no  resurrection  of  the  body,  since  matter 
is  incurably  evil.  Judgment,  therefore,  takes  place  at 
death,  and  all  enter  at  death  into  their  final  abode. 
These  points  are  developed  by  Philo,  the  Jewish  Alex- 
andrian philosopher  (see  Charles,  col.  1367). 


§  4.  CONDITIONS  OF   INDIVIDUAL  SALVATION 

Salvation  is  only  for  the  righteous.  Righteousness, 
however,  is  by  all  sections  of  Judaism  identified  with 
the  observance  of  the  law,  the  point  of  view  of  Deuter- 
onomy being  still  further  developed  and  enforced.  By 
the  Pharisees,  the  most  typical  Jews  of  the  period,  the 
idea  of  righteousness  before  God  is  carried  out  with 
a  thorough-going  legalism,  which  altogether  transcends 
the  legahsm  of  the  Old  Testament;  though  in  the 
later  books  traces  of  a  tendency  in  the  direction  of 
Pharisaism  may  be  found,  as  will  presently  be  noted. 
In  the  Pharisaic  view  the  law  is  divided  up  into  single 
precepts ;  and  God  is  represented  as  the  great  Heavenly 
Account-keeper,  who  writes  down  in  His  tablets  the 
observances  or  non-observances  of  the  precepts.  (For 
an  Old  Testament  anticipation  of  this  point  of  view, 
compare  Neh.  xiii.   14.)     The  Pharisees  further  teach 


THE    PHARISAIC    IDEA  37 

that  judgment  follows  according  to  the  sum  of  the 
account.  It  was,  in  general,  considered  sufficient  if 
the  observances  outweighed  the  non-observances.  For 
the  decision  by  which  God  admits  the  individual  to 
salvation  the  term  justification  is  used.  We  see  that 
the  idea  is  transferred  from  a  connection  with  the 
nation,  as  in  the  Second  Isaiah,  to  a  connection  with 
the  individual^  quite  in  accordance  with  the  stress  on 
the  lot  of  the  individual  which  characterises  the  later 
Judaism,  as  we  have  already  seen.  Judgment  takes 
place,  according  to  the  Pharisees,  at  death ;  this  judg- 
ment is,  however,  an  anticipation  of  the  final  judgment. 

§  5.  THE  PHARISAIC   IDEA   OF  MERIT 
AND  ATONEMENT 

The  individual  Israelite,  however,  according  to  the 
Pharisees,  has  sundry  helps  to  justification  in  case  his 
observances  fall  short.  He  himself  may  make  atone- 
ment for  his  shortcomings  by  repentance,  especially  by 
the  repentance  of  the  great  Day  of  Atonement,  and  also 
by  good  works  such  as  almsgiving.  (We  have  again 
here  the  development  of  ideas  already  found  in  the 
latter  books  of  the  Old  Testament ;  compare  Prov.  x.  2, 


38      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

xvi.  6;  Dan.  xiv.  27).  The  Pharisees  teach  that  the 
sacrifices  of  the  law  also  atone. 

More  prominent,  however,  than  these  methods  of 
atonement,  is  the  notion  of  the  supererogatory  merit  of 
the  saints  of  the  Jewish  Church,  which  can  be  supplied 
to  make  up  the  deficiencies  of  their  compatriots  (com- 
pare Paul's  allusion  in  Rom.  ix.  5:  "whose  are  the 
fathers").  We  even  meet  with  the  conception  that  all 
Jews  must  be  saved  in  virtue  of  their  descent  from 
Abraham  (compare  Matt.  iii.  9 ;  John  viii.  ^^  ff.). 

Finally  we  find  in  the  literature  of  the  period  the 
idea  of  the  Goel,  or  redeemer,  the  martyr  who  by  his 
sufferings  makes  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  his  nation 
(II.  Mace.  vii.  37,  38;  IV.  Mace.  vi.  28,  xvii.  20-28). 
In  these  passages  the  conception  is  not,  as  in  Isa.  liii., 
that  vicarious  suffering  which  benefits  others  along  lines 
of  ethical  influence,  but  of  a  substitutionary  atonement 
in  the  strict  sense. 


§  6.  THE  IDEA  OF  SIN 

We  turn  to  notice  the  views  of  the  apocalyptic  and 
apocryphal  writers  and  of  the  Rabbis  on  the  subject  of 
sin,  especially  as  regards  the  consequences  of  Adam's 


THEIDEAOFSIN  39 

fall.  In  this  period  we  for  the  first  time  clearly  trace 
the  influence  of  Gen.  iii.  on  Jewish  thought.  Thus  in 
Ecclus.  XXV.  24  we  have  precisely  the  Biblical  account 
of  the  Fall.  In  Wisd.  ii.  23,  24,  again,  the  influence  of 
Gen.  iii.  is  clearly  seen.  Its  doctrine  that  (physical) 
death  is  the  result  of  Adam's  sin  is  also  found  in  IV. 
Ezra  iii.  7,  and  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  xvii.  3.  In 
these  passages,  however,  we  have  as  yet  no  doctrine  of 
original  or  hereditary  sin.  This,  however,  is  found 
(perhaps  under  Christian  influence)  in  IV.  Ezra  iii.  21  f., 
iv.  20,  vii.  48.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  in 
these  passages  man  appears  not  to  be  created  perfect 
(nor,  indeed,  is  he  distinctly  said  to  be  in  Gen.  ii.),  but 
has  already  in  him  a  tendency  to  evil,  which  his  fall 
makes  the  permanent  principle  of  his  action. 

In  spite  of  the  Fall  the  responsibility  of  the  individual 
is  strongly  asserted  both  in  IV.  Ezra  viii.  59,  ix.  4, 
and  Baruch  liv.  15-19,  especially  in  the  latter.  The 
teaching  of  the  Rabbis  in  the  Talmud  on  sin  is  thus 
summarised  by  Weber  (Jiidische  Theologie^  p.  216): 
"  By  the  Fall  man  came  under  a  curse,  is  guilty  of 
death,  and  his  right  relation  to  God  is  rendered 
difficult.  More  than  this  cannot  be  said.  Sin,  to 
which  the  bent  and  leaning  had  been  already  planted 


40      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

in  man  by  creation,  had  become  a  fact;  the  evil  im- 
pulse gained  the  mastery  over  mankind,  who  can  only 
resist  it  with  the  greatest  effort;  before  the  Fall  it 
had  power  over  him,  but  no  such  ascendency."  This 
doctrine  of  the  evil  impulse,  it  will  be  observed,  agrees 
with  that  of  IV.  Ezra.  The  Rabbis  also,  like  the 
Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  strongly  insist  upon  the  reality 
of  free  will  and  on  the  direct  responsibility  of  each 
individual. 

We  may  complete  this  account  of  the  doctrine  of 
sin  in  the  later  Judaism  by  a  reference  to  the  teaching 
of  Philo.  He  distinguishes  in  Gen.  i.  and  Gen,  ii.  two 
originals  of  the  human  race,  the  first  heavenly,  the 
ideal  man,  made  in  the  image  of  God ;  the  second 
earthly,  sensuous,  and  mortal.  The  distinction  is, 
however,  not  strictly  carried  out ;  for  to  the  lower 
man,  who  consists  properly  only  of  body  and  soul, 
and  is  thus  mortal,  the  Spirit  of  God  is  given.  This 
gift  of  the  Spirit  is  sometimes  equated,  moreover,  to 
the  bestowal  of  the  Divine  image  on  the  earthly  man ; 
so  that  the  two  conceptions  are  thus  united.  On  his 
bodily  side,  however,  the  earthly  man  is  material,  and 
the  Divine  Spirit  is  enclosed  in  the  body  as  in  a  prison. 
Adam's   fall  was  his  giving  way  to  the  power  of  the 


THE    NEW    TESTAMENT  41 

senses.  His  posterity  inherit  both  his  fleshly  nature 
and  sinfulness,  but  also,  at  the  same  time,  the  traces  of 
relationship  to  God  (see  Holtzmann,  Neutestamentliche 
Theologie^  i.  pp.  97-99). 

§  7.  TRANSITION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

In  concluding  this  account  of  the  long  development 
of  our  doctrines  up  to  the  time  of  the  New  Testament, 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  New  Testament  doctrines 
presuppose  the  general  results  of  it.  Jesus  and  the 
Apostles  do  not  undertake  to  construct  a  complete 
system  of  doctrine  altogether  de  novo ;  but  build  upon 
and  assume,  while  amplifying  and  correcting,  what  has 
been  already  achieved.  But  they  also  have  an  eye, 
Jesus  Himself  in  particular,  to  forgotten  Old  Testament 
points  of  view;  while  writers  like  Paul,  the  author  of 
Hebrews,  and  John,  have  connections  also  with  the 
Gr^eco- Jewish  thought. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS   ACCORDING 
TO  THE  SYNOPTIC  GOSPELS 

§  I.    THE    FATHERHOOD    OF    GOD 

In  the  teaching  of  Jesus  the  social  and  personal  aspects 
of  salvation  are  united  in  a  deeper  synthesis ;  while  at 
the  same  time  the  future  salvation  of  the  prophets  and 
of  the  later  Judaism  are  combined  with  the  present 
salvation  of  the  early  Hebrew  religion  by  a  spiritual 
view  of  things,  which  brings  the  present  and  the  future 
together. 

The  development  of  the  idea  of  salvation  rests,  just 
as  the  previous  developments,  upon  a  change  in  the 
conception  of  God.  Just  as,  in  the  pre-exilic  prophets 
on  the  one  hand,  the  idea  of  salvation  was  the  exact 
correlate  of  their  conception  of  Yahweh,  the  absolutely 
righteous  God  of  Israel ;  just  as,  in  the  later  prophets 
and  the  apocalyptic  writers,  it  was  again  the  correlate  of 
their  conception  of  Yahweh  as  absolutely  transcendent 
over  the  world  ;  so  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  the  new  idea 


THE    FATHERHOOD    OF    GOD     43 

of  salvation  is  the  exact  correlate  of  His  new  conception 
of  God,  viz.  that  of  God  as  the  Father. 

This  conception  is  not,  indeed,  an  entirely  new  one. 
We  find  it  in  the  Old  Testament  (Deut.  xxxii.  6 ;  Jer. 
iii.  4-19,  xxxi.  8;  Isa.  Ixiii.  16,  Ixiv.  7;  Mai.  i.  6; 
I.  Chron.  xxix.  10).  Here,  indeed,  the  reference  is 
to  the  Israelites  as  a  whole.  But  in  the  apocryphal 
and  apocalyptic  literature  the  notion  is  applied  not  only 
to  the  nation  but  to  the  individual  (compare  Ecclus. 
xxiii.  14;  Wisd.  ii.  16;  Tobit  xiii.  14;  Jubilees  i.  24). 
In  the  Rabbis  from  the  end  of  the  first  century  a.d. 
onwards  we  have  also  numerous  instances  of  the  idea. 

With  Jesus,  however,  the  notion  of  Fatherhood 
dominates  the  whole  conception  of  God.  God  is 
absolutely  the  Father — "the  best  father  in  the  world," 
says  Holtzmann  (compare  Matt.  vii.  11). 

The  previous  ideas  of  the  prophets  and  of  the  later 
writers  are  not,  indeed,  lost.  The  righteousness  of  God 
is  taken  up  into  the  notion  of  His  Fatherhood ;  while  His 
transcendence  comes  to  view  in  the  name  of  King, 
which  Jesus,  following  Jewish  usage,  applies  to  God 
(Matt.  V.  35).  The  absolute  omnipotence  of  God  is, 
indeed,  fundamental  to  the  conception  of  Jesus,  just 
as  to  the  previous  Judaism  (Matt.  xi.  27). 


44      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

But  the  fatherly  character  is  central — God's  omni- 
potence is  at  the  disposal  of  His  fatherly  nature,  and 
carries  out  its  ends.  The  difference  between  Jesus  and 
the  Rabbis  appears  in  that,  even  when  they  made  use 
of  the  name  of  Father,  they  subordinated  the  idea  of 
fatherhood  to  that  of  the  transcendence  of  God.  "  In 
Jewish  parlance  it  is  unusual  to  refer  to  God  in  common 
discourse  as  Father  without  adding  the  epithet '  heavenly.' 
It  is  only  in  prayers  that  a  different  course  is  followed  " 
(Dalman,  "  Words  of  Jesus,"  Eng.  trans.,  p.  190).  Jesus, 
on  the  contrary,  uses  the  name  of  Father  with  an  inti- 
macy unknowii  to  the  Rabbis,  and  bids  His  disciples 
do  the  same.  Compare  especially  the  simple  address 
"Father"  in  the  original  form  of  the  Lord's  prayer 
(Luke  xl.  2);  also  "your  Father"  in  Matt.  vi.  8,  x. 
20,  29;  "thy  Father"  in  Matt.  vi.  4,  6,  18.  "The 
usage  of  family  life  is  transferred  to  God"  (Dalman, 
p.  192). 

§  2.  THE  KINGDOM   OF   GOD 

Jesus  uses,  to  describe  the  salvation  which  He  offers, 
the  traditional  name  of  the  "  kingdom  of  God,"  thereby 
connecting  His  teaching  with  the  long  line  of  develop- 
ment of  Jewish  thought.      The  alternative  expression, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD  45 

"the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  also  found  in  the  Synoptic 
Gospels,  means  just  the  same  as  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Just  as  Heaven  is  a  Jewish  paraphrase  for  God,  so  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven  is  a  Jewish  paraphrase  for  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  more  indirect  nomenclature  is 
used  for  the  sake  of  reverence. 

By  describing  salvation  as  the  kingdom  of  God, 
Jesus  implies  that  the  sovereignty  of  God  is  the  chief 
good,  and  to  be  under  His  rule  includes  all  blessings. 
But  He  further  connects  the  promise  of  the  kingdom 
with  the  Fatherhood  of  God  (Luke  xii.  32).  Here  is 
the  point,  whence  a  rich  new  development  of  the  idea  of 
salvation  issues. 

Jesus,  indeed,  makes  use  of  the  best  in  the  existing 
views  of  salvation.  Only  the  political  and  crassly 
material  ideas  are  got  rid  of,  along  with  the  narrow 
particularism  which  characterised  many  Jewish  presenta- 
tions of  salvation  (Matt.  viii.  11). 

Salvation  is  in  the  first  instance  presented,  in  com- 
plete harmony  with  Jewish  thought,  as  future.  It  is 
eternal  life  in  the  kingdom  of  God  (Mark  x.  30;  Matt. 
XXV.  46) ;  and  the  ordinary  accompaniments  of  the 
Jewish  idea  of  the  kingdom  are  presupposed.  Thus 
the    judgment   is    mentioned    (Matt.    xi.    21,    24,   xxv. 


46      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

31-46)  ;  also  the  resurrection  (Matt,  xxii,  30-32). 
After  the  resurrection,  further,  the  saved  lead  angelic 
lives  (Matt.  xxii.  30),  a  doctrine  which  we  have  already 
found  in  the  apocalyptic  literature.  There  are  even 
passages  where  the  ordinary  language  of  the  Jewish 
expectation  is  still  more  closely  followed.  Thus  if,  as 
is  doubtless  the  case,  the  Beatitudes  are  primarily  future, 
and  refer  to  the  kingdom  that  is  to  come  when  the 
world  ends,  this  kingdom  is  spoken  of  as  on  the  earth 
(Matt.  V.  5).  It  is,  again,  spoken  of  as  a  feast,  where 
the  saved  sit  down  (literally,  recline  as  at  a  banquet) 
with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  (Matt.  xi.  8 ;  com- 
pare also  Mark  xiv.  25  ;  Luke  xxii.  30).  No  doubt  these 
various  expressions  are  figurative  in  the  mouth  of  Jesus ; 
but  they  show  how  closely  His  teaching  connects  itself 
with  the  previous  Jewish  hope  of  the  future  kingdom. 

So  far,  then,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  moves  along  tradi- 
tional lines.  The  new  idea  of  salvation,  flowing  from 
God's  Fatherhood,  comes  to  view,  however,  in  a  deeply 
spiritual  conception  of  its  nature,  nowhere  more  clearly 
seen  than  in  the  Beatitudes  (Matt.  v.  3-1 2).  As  has  been 
said,  the  salvation  referred  to  in  these  is  still  in  the 
first  instance  future.  These  wonderful  sayings,  however, 
prepare  the  way  for  the  idea  of  present  salvation,  which 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD  47 

is  the  peculiar  jewel  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  In  so 
far  as  salvation  is  in  essence  spiritual,  is  comfort  for 
mourners,  righteousness  for  those  who  hunger  and  thirst 
after  it,  mercy  for  the  merciful,  the  vision  of  God  for 
the  pure  in  heart,  Divine  sonship  for  the  peacemakers ; 
in  so  far  salvation  can  be  enjoyed  in  the  present  life, 
present  evils  being  overcome  not,  as  in  the  ancient  idea, 
by  God's  turning  of  adversity  into  prosperity,  but  by 
those  inner  gifts  which  enable  the  soul  to  rise  above 
adversity.  The  mourners  can  be  comforted  now ;  and 
so  with  all  the  rest  of  the  spiritual  blessings  mentioned. 
Just  because  they  are  spiritual  they  transcend  the  division 
between  here  and  there,  now  and  then. 

Thus  we  find  Jesus  distinctly  speaking  of  the  kingdom 
not  only  as  future,  but  as  present.  It  is  already  the 
Messianic  age.  The  disciples  have  the  bridegroom 
with  them  (Mark  ii.  19).  The  miracles  foretold  in 
prophecy  (Isa.  xxxv.  5,  6)  even  now  manifest  the 
Messiah's  presence  (Matt.  xi.  4,  5).  What  prophets  and 
kings  of  old  desired,  the  disciples  enjoy  (Matt.  xiii.  17). 
Some  are  by  anticipation  already  in  the  kingdom  (Matt. 
xi.  11).  Its  coming  is  further  seen  in  the  defeat  of 
Satan  (Matt.  xii.  28). 

Again,  in  the  parables  of  Mark  iv.  the  mystery  of  the 


48      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

kingdom  (Mark  iv.  ii)  would  seem  to  be  that  the  kmg- 
dom  is  already  to  be  seen  in  germ  in  the  small  beginnings 
which  Jesus  has  made  (compare  the  parable  of  the 
mustard-seed,  Mark  iv.  30-32).  In  spite  of  all  failures 
the  word  of  the  Gospel  is  bringing  fruit  to  harvest 
(compare  the  parable  of  the  sower,  Mark  iv.  1-9). 
Mysterious  in  its  working  is  the  Gospel  word,  which  pro- 
duces such  results  (compare  the  parable  of  the  seed 
growing  secretly,  Mark  iv.  26-29).  These  parables,  then, 
as  well  as  the  passages  previously  quoted,  furnish  evidence 
that  Jesus  thought  of  the  kingdom  not  only  as  future 
but  as  present.  And  finally,  Luke  xvii.  20,  21,  whether 
the  correct  rendering  of  the  Greek  be  "the  kingdom 
is  within  you"  or  "the  kingdom  is  among  you,"  seems 
equally  to  bear  witness  to  the  idea  of  a  kingdom  of  God 
realised  in  the  present, 

§  3.    SONSHIP 

The  most  characteristic  name,  however,  which  Jesus 
uses  to  describe  the  present  salvation  is  one  which,  in 
contradistinction  to  the  name  "  kingdom,"  brings  out  the 
individual  character  of  this  salvation,  though  not  to  the 
neglect  of  its  social  aspect.  This  name  is  "  sonship." 
Sonship  is  a  blessing  of  the  future  kingdom  (Matt.  v.  9), 


CONDITIONS    OF    SALVATION 


49 


but  can  be  enjoyed  here  (Matt.  v.  44,  45).  It  is  realised 
in  the  knowledge  of  and  trust  in  God's  Fatherhood,  by 
means  of  which  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  earthly  life 
are  removed  and  the  soul  finds  perfect  peace  (Matt.  vi. 
25-34). 

It  should  be  noticed  that,  while  the  idea  of  sonship 
has  immediate  reference  to  individual  salvation,  yet 
indirectly  it  suggests  the  social  aspect  of  salvation, 
which  is  more  directly  denoted  by  the  name  "  kingdom 
of  God."  Sonship  is  the  correlate  of  the  Fatherhood  of 
God,  which  equally  embraces  all  His  sons.  All  sens  of 
God,  however,  are  brothers  one  of  another  (Matt,  xxiii. 
9).  The  idea  of  sonship,  therefore,  can  never  exist  with- 
out the  thought  of  the  great  family  of  God,  in  which  the 
sons  share  the  blessing  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood  in 
community.  God  is  not  only  '^  thy  Father  "  (Matt.  vi.  4), 
He  is  also  "  your  Father  "  (Matt.  v.  45). 

§  4.   CONDITIONS   OF  SALVATION  :   FAITH 
AND   REPENTANCE 

The  conditions  of  salvation,  according  to  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  are  often  said  to  be  faith  and  repentance 
(compare    Mark  i.   li,   "Repent  and  believe  the  good 


50      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

news  ").  The  statement  is,  however,  not  strictly  accurate. 
Faith  is  not  with  Jesus  a  condition  of  salvation,  but  rather 
the  subjective  realisation  of  salvation,  whether  of  future 
salvation  as  hope,  or  of  present  salvation  as  experience. 
Trust  in  God's  Fatherhood  is,  in  fact,  simply  the  subjec- 
tive realisation  of  sonship.  To  believe  the  good  news 
of  the  kingdom  is  essentially  the  same  thing  as  to  trust 
in  the  goodwill  of  the  Father,  who  will  in  His  own 
good  time  give  the  kingdom  (as  future)  to  those  who  wait 
for  it  (Luke  xii.  32).  And,  as  has  already  been  seen, 
present  salvation  and  trust  in  the  goodness  of  the  Father 
are  one  and  the  same  thing.  We  cannot,  therefore, 
properly  speak  of  faith  as  a  condition  of  salvation ;  it  is 
better  to  say  that  in  faith  salvation  is  subjectively 
appropriated  and  realised. 

Repentance  is  more  strictly  a  condition  of  salvation. 
It  is  necessary,  however,  at  the  outset  to  observe  that 
"  repentance  "  in  the  mouth  of  Jesus  must  not  be  taken 
in  the  narrow  sense  in  which  the  word  is  commonly 
used  in  English.  The  word  which  in  our  English  ver- 
sion is  translated  repentance  means  properly  "change 
of  mind  "  ;  and  if  we  retain  the  word  repentance  in  our 
account  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  it  must  be  understood 
to  be  used  in  this  larger   sense.     The  change  of  mind 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 


51 


implied  is  in  its  negative  aspect  a  turning  away  from  sin  : 
it  has  a  positive  aspect,  however,  also,  which  is  a  turning 
to  God.  The  completest  illustration  of  the  whole  idea 
is  in  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son  (Luke  xv.  11-32). 

§  5.  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

We  begin  first  with  the  positive  aspect,  leaving  over 
the  negative  aspect,  till  we  consider  the  relation  of  salva- 
tion and  sin  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  The  positive 
aspect  of  repentance  is  the  moral  condition  which  Jesus 
attaches  to  entrance  into  salvation.  To  understand  its 
meaning  properly,  we  must  now  turn  to  bring  out  speci- 
ally the  moral  element  involved  in  the  conception  of 
salvation  formed  by  Jesus.  Here  the  ideas  of  the 
pre-exilic  prophets  come  to  their  full  value.  Just  as 
to  them  the  kingdom  was  essentially  the  sphere  of 
righteousness  under  the  rule  of  the  righteous  God,  so 
also  with  Jesus.  Righteousness  is  a  chief  blessing  of 
the  kingdom  (Matt.  v.  6).  Those  who  are  in  the 
kingdom  are  those  whom  God  approves  as  righteous. 
Compare  Matt.  iii.  20,  where,  however,  Jesus  gives  the 
idea  of  righteousness  itself  a  new  development,  by 
means  of  a  contrast  between  the  true  righteousness  of 


52      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

the  members  of  the  kingdom  and  the  Pharisaic  idea 
of  righteousness.  The  contrast  is  carried  out  in  detail 
in  Matt.  v.  21-vi.  18.  Righteousness,  according  to 
Jesus,  is  not  the  mere  external  keeping  of  the  com- 
mandments of  the  law,  but  is  a  matter  of  the  heart  and 
the  motive.  Not  the  letter  only  of  the  law  of  Moses 
must  be  carried  out,  but  also  its  inner  spirit;  and,  if 
need  be,  the  letter  must  give  way,  that  the  spirit  may  be 
more  fully  realised.  Above  all,  the  measure  of  the  true 
righteousness  of  the  members  of  the  kingdom  is  to  be 
found  in  the  character  of  God  Himself  (Matt.  v.  48). 
In  this  way  the  new  conception  of  God  as  Father  comes 
in  to  complete  the  idea  of  righteousness  with  the 
factor  of  disinterested  love,  and  Jesus  finally  brings 
the  moral  character  of  salvation  to  view  by  means  of 
the  description  of  salvation  alternative  with  the  kingdom, 
which  is  the  correlative  of  God's  Fatherhood,  viz.  son- 
ship  (Matt.  V.  44,  45).  Sonship  includes  the  imitation 
of  God,  our  Father.  It  is  not  only  a  privilege,  but  a 
responsibility.  And  since  God  is  love,  love  is  the  law 
of  sonship  (Luke  vi.  36).  The  climax  of  the  better 
righteousness  of  the  members  of  the  kingdom  is  found, 
therefore,  in  the  law  of  universal  love,  which  we  call  the 
golden  rule  (Matt.  vii.  12). 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  53 

The  active  exercise  of  righteousness  is,  then,  with  Jesus 
the  condition  of  entrance  into  the  kingdom ;  and,  since 
all  moral  action  is  a  progress  towards  an  ideal  (Matt.  v. 
48),  or  a  seeking  (Matt.  vi.  32),  or  even  a  strife  (Luke  xiii. 
24),  it  involves  sacrifice  and  self-denial,  upon  the  neces- 
sity of  which,  accordingly,  great  stress  is  laid  by  Jesus. 
Compare  especially  Mark  ix.  43-47  for  the  sacrifices 
Jesus  requires,  and  Mark  viii.  34  for  the  central  place 
given  to  self-denial.  Along  with  the  glad  evangel  of  God's 
Fatherhood  which  Jesus  preaches,  there  is  to  be  found  in 
His  moral  teaching  a  stern  asceticism,  in  the  true  and  high- 
est sense  of  the  word,  which  is  the  necessary  complement 
of  the  joyous  message,  and  of  which  even  such  a  require- 
ment as  that  made  of  the  young  ruler  (Mark  x.  21)  is 
only  a  specialisation.  Whatever  hinders  the  true  right- 
eousness of  the  kingdom  must  be  cut  off  at  any  price. 

We  turn  to  another  aspect  of  the  subject.  Righteous- 
ness was  just  now  spoken  of  as  the  condition  of  entrance 
into  the  kingdom  of  God.  From  what  has  been  said 
earlier,  however,  it  will  be  evident  in  what  sense 
righteousness  is  a  condition  of  entrance  into  the  king- 
dom. It  is  a  condition  because  the  kingdom  itself  is 
one  of  righteousness ;  because  righteousness  is  a  chief 
blessing  of  the  kingdom  (see  Matt.  v.  6,  vi.  $$).     But 


54      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

it  is  not  the  condition  in  the  sense  that  the  kingdom  is 
earned  by  righteousness,  as  was  taught  by  the  legalism 
of  the  Jewish  theology.  On  the  contrary,  the  kingdom 
itself  remains  always  the  gift  of  God  (Luke  vi.  32). 
This  is  one  of  the  paradoxes  of  Jesus,  which,  however, 
is  perfectly  intelligible  to  Christian  experience.  Jesus, 
indeed,  frequently  in  the  language  of  Jewish  theology 
speaks  of  the  reward  which  God  gives  for  our  conduct 
(Matt.  V.  12,  vi.  I,  4,  6,  18);  at  the  same  time  He 
makes  it  quite  clear  that  the  idea  of  reward  is  not  to 
be  taken  strictly  by  the  remarkable  parable  of  the 
labourers  in  the  vineyard,  a  parable  which  is  absolutely 
opposed  to  the  legal  idea  of  reward  according  to  the 
amount  of  work.  The  master  gives  to  the  servants 
not  according  to  their  legal  claims,  but  according  to 
his  own  good  pleasure.  None,  indeed,  receive  less 
than  they  deserve ;  but  the  labourers  hired  later  in  the 
day  receive  much  more  than  they  are  legally  entitled 
to  receive  (Matt.  xx.  1-15). 

§  6.  SIN 

We  turn  now  to  the  negative  side  of  the  idea  of 
repentance.  The  change  of  mind  it  implies  is  to 
righteousness,  but   from   sin.     By  the   general   call  to 


SIN 55 

repentance  (Mark  i.  15)  Jesus  presupposes  that  all  who 
hear  Him  are  sinners.  So,  also,  He  speaks  of  men  in 
general  as  sinners  (Luke  xiii.  2,  xv.  7,  10,  xviii.  13). 
He  comes  to  sinners,  as  the  physician  comes  to  the 
sick  (compare  Mark  ii.  17).  The  existence  of  any 
who  are  actually  righteous  is  not  implied  by  the  above 
text;  it  remains  hypothetical.  Even  the  disciples  are 
"evil"  (Matt.  vii.  11 ;  Luke  xi.  13). 

At  the  same  time  Jesus  recognises  relative  differences 
in  men.  There  are  good  and  bad  men  just  as  there 
are  good  and  bad  trees  (Matt.  vii.  43-45).  Jesus, 
again,  speaks  of  some  as  possessing  an  honest  and 
good  heart  (Luke  viii.  15). 

The  attitude  of  Jesus  toward  sin  is,  in  fact,  practical 
rather  than  theoretical.  There  is  little  doctrine  of 
sin  in  His  teaching.  The  following  points,  however, 
come  to  view.  Sin  is  an  offence  against  God  (com- 
pare Luke  XV.  21,  where  Heaven  is,  according  to 
Jewish  usage,  a  paraphrase  for  God).  Jesus  speaks  of 
sins  as  debts,  and  sinners  as  debtors  towards  God 
(Matt.  vi.  12).  Or,  again,  He  calls  sins  "trespasses" 
(Matt.  vi.  14).  These  figures  give  us  a  general  con- 
ception of  what  Jesus  understood  by  sin :  it  is  a  trans- 
gression of  God's  will,  which  entails  guilt  before  God. 


56      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

There  is,  however,  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  no 
doctrine  of  original  sin.  In  Mark  vii.  23,  indeed,  we 
read  that  "  evil  things  proceed  from  within,  and  defile 
the  man."  The  point  here,  however,  is  simply  (in 
opposition  to  the  idea  of  defilement  from  without) 
that  the  things  which  defile  proceed  from  within.  But 
there  is  nothing  to  imply  whether  they  proceed  from 
the  free  resolve  of  the  will,  or  only  from  this  as  deter- 
mined by  a  sinful  nature.  In  general  Jesus  thinks 
only  of  actual  sins  or  of  sinful  habits.  He  does  not 
go  behind  these  to  a  philosophy  of  their  cause.  If 
He  gives  such  explanation  at  all,  it  is  implied  in  what 
He  says  of  the  weakness  of  the  flesh  (Mark  xiv.  38). 

Jesus  expresses  His  sense  of  the  terrible  state  of 
the  sinner  by  describing  him  as  "lost"  (Matt,  xviii. 
11-14,  Luke  XV.  3-32);  that  is,  according  to  these 
parables,  separated  from  God,  as  the  strayed  sheep 
from  the  shepherd,  the  coin  from  its  owner,  the  prodi- 
gal son  from  his  father.  But  this  state  of  separation 
from  God  involves  terrible  penalties  both  in  this  world 
and  the  next.  As  regards  the  punishment  of  sin, 
Jesus  in  the  main  simply  accepts  the  doctrines  of  the 
prophets  and  of  the  later  Judaism.  Like  the  prophets, 
He  sees  the  hand  of  God  punishing  sin  in  the  cala- 


SIN  57 

mities  of  history.  He  views  the  destruction  of  Jeru<. 
salem  and  the  end  of  the  Jewish  state  as  the  direct 
punishment  of  the  sins  of  the  Jews  (Matt.  xxi.  40-44, 
xxii.  7,  xxiii.  32-36,  Luke  xix.  41-44).  He  repudiates, 
however,  the  inference  that  special  calamities  always 
mean  special  sin  (Luke  xiii.  1-5).  As  regards  the 
penalties  of  sin  after  death,  Jesus  follows  the  Jewish 
theology  in  describing  the  state  of  sinners,  whether 
before  or  after  the  judgment,  as  one  of  fiery  torment 
(Matt.  V.  22,  Mark  ix.  43-48,  Luke  xvi.  23-31, 
Matt.  xxv.  46).  That  the  fiery  torment,  however,  is 
figurative  appears  from  the  use  of  a  different  figure 
(Matt.  viii.  11,  12,  xxii.  13),  in  which  the  punishment 
of  sin  after  death  is  imaged  as  darkness  and  cold  out- 
side the  banqueting  hall,  which  represents  the  kingdom 
of  God.  The  idea  that  runs  through  all  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  as  to  the  state  of  the  lost  after  death  is  that 
it  is  exclusion  from  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  there- 
with the  utmost  misery  (Matt.  vii.  23,  viii.  12,  xxvi.  41). 
The  worst  earthly  punishments  are  as  nothing  to  the 
punishment  of  sin  after  death  (Mark  ix.  42-48).  Jesus 
however,  recognises  degrees  of  punishment,  varying 
with  the  degrees  of  guilt  (compare  Luke  xii.  47, 
48).       This     text,    however,    shows    that    some    guilt 


58      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

attaches  even  to  those  who  knew  not  the  Lord's  will : 
their  ignorance  was  culpable  ignorance.  So  when 
(Matt.  xi.  20-24)  Jesus  says  that  it  shall  be  more 
tolerable  in  the  day  of  judgment  for  Tyre  and  Sidon 
and  Sodom  than  for  the  cities  that  had  not  repented 
at  the  sight  of  His  mighty  works,  it  is  not  implied  that 
Tyre  and  Sidon  and  Sodom  go  unpunished :  on  the 
contrary,  these  cities,  which  were  notable  examples  of 
God's  judgments  {cf.  Jude  7),  are  simply  used  to 
measure  the  extreme  gravity  of  the  punishment  of  the 
cities,  which  were  even  greater  sinners  than  they. 


§  7.  SALVATION  AND   SIN 

After  this  discussion  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  with 
respect  to  sin,  we  have  now  to  return  to  repentance  in 
its  negative  aspect,  as  a  turning  from  sin.  On  this  side 
the  idea  of  Jesus  is  really  represented  by  our  English 
word  repentance.  The  abandonment  of  sin  and  the  con- 
fession of  sin  are  both  implied  (Luke  xv.  18).  There  is 
also  implied  the  prayer  for  God's  mercy  (Luke  xviii.  13). 

God  answers  this  prayer  by  a  full  and  free  forgiveness, 
and  thus  opens  the  way  to  the  kingdom.  Forgiveness 
is,  however,  not    only  bestowed  when  the   sinner  first 


SALVATION    AND    SIN  59 

turns  to  God  in  repentance ;  but,  since  even  those  sin, 
who  are  in  the  kingdom,  and  enjoy  present  salvation, 
forgiveness  is  one  of  the  continual  blessings  of  the 
kingdom  in  the  present  life,  a  thing  for  which  the 
disciples  are  to  pray,  as  they  pray  for  their  daily  bread 
(Matt.  vi.  II,  12).  Thus  Jesus  finds  a  place  in  His 
conception  of  salvation  for  the  Divine  forgiveness  asso- 
ciated with  the  kingdom  by  the  prophets.  But  whereas 
they  connect  forgiveness  with  the  future  salvation  (Jer. 
xxxi.  4 ;  Zech.  xiii.  i ;  even  Isa.  xl.  2,  xliii.  25  are 
anticipatory  of  the  future  salvation),  Jesus  connects 
forgiveness  with  the  present  salvation,  and  so  gives  to 
their  great  idea  of  forgiveness  as  a  chief  blessing  of 
salvation,  a  new  scope  and  value.  He  also  reveals  its 
eternal  ground  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  The  Father, 
who  in  His  love  gives  to  His  children  the  kingdom 
(Luke  xii.  32),  gives  to  them  as  lost  children,  as  sinners, 
as  a  chief  blessing  of  the  kingdom,  the  free  forgiveness 
of  their  sins.  See  Matt.  vi.  9-15,  where  forgiveness  is 
grounded  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  Above  all  com- 
pare the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son  (Luke  xv.  11-24). 

We  must  note,  however,  that  while  Jesus  depicts  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  as  one  of  the  chief  blessings  of  the 
kingdom,  He  knows  of  a  sin  which  cannot  be  forgiven, 


6o      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

either  in  this  world  or  the  next  (Mark  iii.  28,  eg).  This 
is  the  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  from 
the  context  seems  to  mean  the  woeful  sin  of  putting  evil 
for  good  and  good  for  evil,  as  the  Pharisees  did,  when 
they  ascribed  the  miracles  of  Jesus  to  Beelzebub  (Mark 
iii.  22-30).  Whereas  words  directed  personally  against 
Jesus  as  a  man  could  be  forgiven,  such  blasphemy  of 
the  Divine  power,  that  was  manifested  in  the  works  of 
Jesus,  could  not  be  forgiven  (Matt.  xii.  32). 

It  is  finally  to  be  observed  that  though,  when  it  is 
said  that  forgiveness  follows  upon  repentance,  it  is  the 
negative  aspect  of  repentance  which  is  immediately  con- 
templated; at  the  same  time  the  positive  aspect  of 
repentance  is  implied  as  well.  There  is  no  real  repent- 
ance without  this,  no  turning  from  sin  without  turning 
to  righteousness.  In  this  way  repentance  in  its  positive 
aspect,  or  active  righteousness,  appears  as  a  condition  of 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  a  truth  which  Jesus  teaches  in 
one  way  when  He  says  that  without  true  righteousness 
it  is  not  possible  to  enter  the  kingdom,  which,  as  the 
sum  of  all  blessings,  includes  for  sinners  the  forgiveness 
of  their  sins.  He  teaches  it  also  in  another  way  by 
emphasising  as  a  condition  of  the  Divine  forgiveness  that 
particular  form  of  righteousness,  which  consists  in  the 


UNIVERSALISM    OF    JESUS       6i 

imitation  of  God's  forgiveness  in  our  relations  one  to 
another.  This  necessary  connection  between  forgiving 
and  being  forgiven  Jesus  expresses  both  in  pregnant 
aphorisms  and  in  vivid  parables  (compare  Matt.  vi. 
14,  15,  xviii.  23,  35). 


§  8.   THE   UNIVERSALISM    OF  JESUS 

In  all  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  to  salvation  and  sin 
there  is  an  implicit  universalism.  Jesus,  indeed,  preached 
actually  only  to  Jews,  and  in  one  place  at  least  con- 
sciously limits  His  earthly  mission  to  his  own  people 
(Matt.  XV.  24).  At  the  same  time  Jesus  addressed  His 
fellow-countrymen  rather  as  men  than  as  the  children 
of  Abraham.  There  is  very  little  of  His  teaching,  for 
instance,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  which  is  not 
immediately  applicable  to  men  universally.  In  process 
of  time,  in  fact,  Jesus  actually  asserted  that  salvation 
was  equally  for  the  Gentiles  and  for  the  Jews  (see  Luke 
xiii.  29).  In  regard  to  this  saying,  Luke's  chronology 
seems  preferable  to  that  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew, 
where  it  appears  much  earlier  in  the  ministry  of  Jesus 
(Matt.  viii.  11).  Luke  enables  us  to  regard  it  as  be- 
longing to  a  later  period  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus  than 


62      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Matt.  XV.  24,  just  now  quoted ;  and  hence  helps  us  to 
arrive  at  a  more  intelligible  conception  of  the  develop- 
ment of  an  explicit  universalism  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
The  historical  cause  of  this  development  would  seem 
to  be  the  growing  alienation  of  the  Jews  from  Jesus 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  the  repeated  experi- 
ences of  Gentile  faith  contrasting  so  markedly  with 
Jewish  unbelief.  See  Matt,  viii,  5-13,  the  account  of 
the  healing  of  the  centurion's  servant,  omitting  only 
viii.  II,  12,  as  above  explained:  Luke's  version  does,  in 
fact,  omit  these  words  from  this  context  (Luke  vii.  2-10). 
See,  again.  Matt.  xv.  21-28,  the  account  of  the  healing  of 
the  Syrophenician's  daughter.  In  such  cases  as  these 
Jesus  had  remarkable  instances  of  Gentile  faith,  the 
contrast  of  which  with  Jewish  unbelief  provoked  His 
wonder  (Matt.  viii.  20,  xv.  28).  It  is,  therefore,  intelli- 
gible enough  how,  when  the  Jewish  leaders  manifested 
a  final  rejection  of  the  message  of  Jesus,  He  proclaimed 
the  passing  over  of  the  kingdom  of  God  from  the  Jews 
to  the  Gentiles  (Matt.  xxi.  43).  Thus  was  made  explicit 
the  universalism  implicitly  contained  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount.  It  was  made  clear  that  salvation  was  for 
all  who  would  receive  it,  whether  Jews  or  Gentiles,  the 
conditions  being  not  racial,  but  simply  moral. 


ANTHROPOLOGY    OF    JESUS     63 

§  9.  ANTHROPOLOGY  OF  JESUS 

In  view  of  this  universalism  of  Jesus,  we  may  stop 
for  a  moment  to  consider  what  He  teaches  of  man. 
His  doctrine  is  all  practically  implied  in  His  teaching 
upon  sin  and  salvation.  Man  appears  as  a  possible 
son  of  God.  In  a  sense,  indeed,  he  is  a  son  already, 
though  a  lost  one;  but  to  become  a  son  in  the  full 
sense  (Matt.  v.  45  ;  the  literal  translation  of  the  Greek 
is  "that  ye  may  become  sons  of  your  Father  which  is 
in  heaven  "),  he  must  enter  on  and  realise  his  sonship, 
i.e.  be  saved  (compare  Luke  xv.  4-24). 

As  regards  the  constitution  of  human  nature,  Jesus 
simply  adopts  the  common  Jewish  dualism  of  body  or 
flesh,  and  soul  or  spirit,  which  He  makes  use  of  in  ways 
that  are  no  different  from  those  already  noted,  either  in 
the  Old  Testament  or  in  later  Jewish  writers.  Thus 
in  Mark  xiv.  38,  Jesus  suggests,  quite  in  Old  Testament 
fashion,  the  weakness  of  the  flesh  as  the  ground  of 
sin.  Again  in  Matt.  x.  28,  the  soul  appears  as  the 
immortal  part,  which  survives  after  death  (compare 
also  Luke  xii.  20).  This  opposition  of  soul  and  body, 
taken  along  with  the  doctrine  that  the  souls  of  the 
wicked  go  to  hell,  is  what  we  have  found  in  the  later 


64      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Judaism.  The  idea  of  the  destruction  of  the  body  as 
well  as  the  soul  in  hell,  seems  to  presuppose  a  resurrec- 
tion not  only  of  the  just,  but  of  the  wicked  for  judg- 
ment, before  the  wicked  find  their  ultimate  location. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  words  of  Jesus  in  Mark  xii. 
25  seem  to  connect  themselves  more  naturally  with 
the  other  view,  found  also  in  the  later  Judaism,  viz.  that 
only  the  just  rise  again. 


§  10.  THE  MESSIAH 

No  account  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  on  sin  and 
salvation  can  be  complete  without  a  reference  to  His 
teaching  concerning  Himself  in  relation  to  these  points. 
In  His  doctrine  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  Messiah 
is  essential ;  though  this  fundamental  necessity  of  the 
Messiah  to  the  kingdom  is  often  rather  implied  than 
explicitly  affirmed.  Jesus  claims  Himself  to  be  the 
Messiah,  and  His  fundamental  position  as  guaranteeing 
the  kingdom  often  is  implied  simply  in  the  authoritative 
way  in  which  He  speaks,  resting  the  message  of  the 
kingdom  on  His  own  sole  word.  Compare  the  reiter- 
ated "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  by  them  of  old 
time,  but  I  say  unto  you,"  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 


THE    MESSIAH  65 

Besides  such  indirect  assertions  of  His  essentiality  to 
the  kingdom,  there  are  not  wanting,  however,  the  most 
direct  assertions  of  the  same.  We  shall  have  to  keep 
both  forms  of  assertion  in  view  in  our  discussion. 

First  of  all,  then,  with  regard  to  present  salvation,  if, 
as  w^e  have  seen,  this  consists  in  the  knowledge  of 
God's  Fatherhood,  Jesus  claims  alone  to  be  able  to 
reveal  God  to  men,  and  thus  to  bring  men  into  the 
state  of  salvation  (Matt.  xi.  27).  The  claim  thus  made 
is  involved  in  the  whole  work  and  teaching  of  Jesus, 
and  is  at  the  same  time  in  another  way  unfolded  by 
this.  The  character  of  the  work  and  teaching  of  Jesus 
gives  substance  to  His  claim.  It  is  on  His  authority, 
the  authority  of  His  word  and  works,  and  the  impres- 
sion of  His  person,  that  man  can  beHeve  in  God's 
Fatherhood.  In  His  attitude  to  men,  the  attitude  of 
the  Father  is  made  plain,  and  claims  men's  trust  and 
obedience.  Thus  Jesus  says  on  the  one  hand  (Matt, 
xix.  14),  "  It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father,  which  is  in 
heaven,  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish " ; 
on  the  other  hand  He  says  (Luke  xix.  10),  "The  Son 
of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  save  that  which  was  lost," 
and  in  His  whole  bearing  towards  sinful  men  manifests 
the  love,  which  He  declares  to  be  characteristic  of  God. 


66      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Compare  Luke  xv.  i,  and  observe  that,  by  the  parables 
which  follow,  Jesus  justifies  His  attitude  to  the  Pharisees 
by  identifying  it  with  the  attitude  of  God  towards 
sinners  (Luke  xv.  3-24). 

In  view  of  this  moral  oneness  of  Jesus  with  the 
Father,  it  is  intelligible  enough  that  the  reception  of 
the  kingdom,  which  is  fundamentally  a  reception  of 
the  Fatherhood  of  God,  is  also  a  reception  of  Jesus 
Himself.  Entrance  into  salvation  takes  place  through 
a  coming  to  Jesus  Himself  (Matt.  xi.  2S),  and  an  accept- 
ance of  Him  as  Teacher  and  Lord  (Matt.  x.  24, 
xxiii.  8).  If  Jesus  describes  the  salvation  of  the 
kingdom  as  the  chief  good  beyond  all  others,  the 
hid  treasure  (Matt.  xiii.  44),  the  pearl  of  great  price 
(Matt.  xiii.  45,  46) ;  if,  again.  He  points  to  trust  in  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  as  the  source  of  perfect  peace, 
and  of  freedom  from  all  anxiety  (Matt.  vi.  25-34), 
He  equally  associates  the  finding  of  rest  with  His 
own  person,  with  coming  to  Him,  learning  from  Him, 
and  taking  His  yoke  (Matt.  xi.  28-30).  Finally,  Jesus 
not  only  calls  men  into  the  kingdom,  but  also 
personally  exercises  that  chief  blessing  of  the  kingdom, 
which  the  Father  bestows  on  sinners,  viz.  the  Divine 
forgiveness  (Mark  ii.    5).     Jesus,  the  Father,  and  the 


THE    MESSIAH  67 

kingdom  are  then  indissolubly  connected.  He  is  the 
plenipotentiary  of  God  on  earth,  who  is  entrusted  with 
all  its  affairs  (Matt.  xi.  27).  Or  in  the  language  of 
Jewish  prophecy,  He  is  the  Messiah,  the  human  king 
of  the  Divine  kingdom  (Mark  xvi.  13-17).  Jesus 
accepts  the  term  from  the  history  of  His  people ;  and 
uses  it,  as  He  does  the  idea  of  the  kingdom,  stripping 
off  the  political  associations  of  its  historical  origin,  and 
giving  a  new  and  deeper  meaning  of  His  own  to  the 
time-honoured  name.  See  Mark  x.  42-45,  a  passage 
to  be  discussed  more  fully  later  on. 

The  connection  between  Jesus,  the  Father,  and  the 
kingdom  comes  out  further  in  regard  to  future  salva- 
tion. In  His  later  teaching,  Jesus  presents  this  as 
bound  up  with  His  own  Parusia  or  manifestation 
in  Divine  glory  (Matt.  xvi.  27,  28).  This  form  of 
teaching  accompanies  the  prophecy  of  His  death  which 
is  also  characteristic  of  the  later  teaching  of  Jesus. 
Jesus  is  to  die  at  the  hands  of  men;  but  He  will 
come  again  in  glory,  "  the  glory  of  His  Father  with 
His  angels"  (Matt.  xvi.  27),  and  His  coming  will  be- 
the  coming  of  the  kingdom  (Matt.  xvi.  28).  Jesus  will 
then  come  to  gather  together  His  elect  (Matt.  xxiv.  31), 
and  at  the  same  time  to  inaugurate  the  last  Judgment 


68      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

(Matt.  xvi.  27).  Jesus  sometimes  represents  Himself 
as  Judge  in  the  last  Judgment,  as  in  the  text  last  referred 
to,  and  also  in  the  great  parable  of  the  last  Judgment 
(Matt.  XXV.  31-46).  In  other  cases,  however,  Jesus 
represents  God  as  the  Judge  and  Himself  as  the 
assessor  of  His  Father's  judgment  (Matt.  x.  32,  33). 
The  moral  unity  of  Jesus  and  the  Father,  before  re- 
ferred to,  makes  it  plain  that  these  two  representations 
are  interchangeable.  Moreover,  in  both  forms  of  repre- 
sentation it  is  made  clear  that  the  final  destiny  of 
men  is  fixed  by  their  relation  to  Jesus.  In  the 
parable  of  the  last  Judgment^  where  Jesus  Himself  is 
the  Judge,  it  is  those  who  have  honoured  Jesus  in 
the  hungry,  the  thirsty,  the  stranger,  the  naked,  the 
sick,  or  the  prisoner,  who  find  entrance  to  the  kingdom : 
those  who  have  not  thus  honoured  Him,  on  the  other 
hand,  go  away  into  eternal  punishment.  In  the  state- 
ment of  Matt.  X.  32,  33,  where  Jesus  appears  as 
assessor,  the  final  destiny  of  men  turns  on  their  con- 
fession of  Jesus;  He  confesses  before  God  those  who 
have  confessed  Him  and  denies  those  who  have  denied 
Him.  In  either  case,  then,  the  same  lesson  is  taught. 
As  in  relation  to  present  salvation,  so  again  in  regard 
of  future  salvation,  it  is  made  plain  that  Jesus  and  the 


THE    DEATH    OF    JESUS  69 

kingdom   are    indissolubly    connected.      There    is    no 
entrance  to  the  kingdom  apart  from  Jesus. 

§  II.  THE   SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE    DEATH 
OF  JESUS 

Yet  another  connection  between  Jesus  and  salvation 
appears  in  His  teaching  concerning  His  death.  When 
towards  the  close  of  His  ministry  Jesus  was  faced  by 
His  impending  death,  He  taught  that  this,  too,  would 
serve  the  Divine  purpose  of  salvation  (Mark  x.  45). 
He  Himself,  as  the  head  of  the  kingdom,  falls  under  the 
law  of  the  kingdom,  which,  unlike  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  (Mark  x.  42),  is  that  the  higher  the  rank  in  the 
kingdom,  the  greater  is  the  service  required  (Mark  x.  43, 
44) — such  is  the  new  form  in  which  Jesus  now  expresses 
the  previously  mentioned  law  of  love.  Jesus  accord- 
ingly views  His  whole  life  as  one  of  service,  the  climax 
of  which  is  His  death.  "  The  Son  of  man  came  not  to 
be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His 
life  a  ransom  for  many."  In  this  context,  then,  the  death 
of  Jesus  appears  as  His  supreme  act  of  service.  At 
the  same  time  a  specific  benefit  is  attached  to  it,  viz. 
the  redemption  of  many.  This  is  the  particular  service 
which  it  renders. 


70      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

A  number  of  questions  arise  in  connection  with  the 
pregnant  phrase  in  which  Jesus  describes  the  fruit  of 
His  death  :  "  A  ransom  for  many."  Who  are  the 
many  ?  From  what  are  they  redeemed  ?  In  what  does 
their  redemption  consist  ?  How  is  the  death  of  Jesus 
a  ransom  ? 

The  second  question  is  perhaps  the  easiest  to  answer. 
The  state  of  mankind,  subject  to  sin,  and  expectant  of 
the  Divine  judgment  after  death,  is  naturally  likened  to 
bondage.  Sin  and  hell  hold  men  captive.  They  are 
subject  to  the  one,  and  doomed  to  the  other. 

Next  the  answer  to  the  third  question  is  clear.  The 
redemption  of  the  captives  consists  in  their  deliverance 
from  sin  and  hell,  that  they  may  become  participators 
in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

The  question,  Who  are  the  many  ?  is  not  so  easy  to 
answer.  It  may  be  all  those  who  from  first  to  last 
enter  the  kingdom  of  God,  or  it  may  be  those  who  after 
the  death  of  Jesus  shall  be  brought  into  the  kingdom, 
His  death  achieving  for  them  what  His  life  has  done 
for  the  disciples.  The  latter  explanation  is  that  of 
Wendt  ("Teaching  of  Jesus,"  Eng.  trans., ii.  pp.  226-234). 
It  seems  to  rise  naturally  out  of  the  historical  situation, 
and  seems  also   to   agree  with   John  xii.   24-32,  if  we 


THE    DEATH    OF    JESUS  71 

may  at  this  point  bring  in  the  Gospel  of  John  to 
interpret  the  pregnant  brevity  of  the  Synoptic  record. 
These  Johannine  passages,  in  the  context  in  which  they 
are  set,  viz.  in  connection  with  the  desire  of  the  Greeks 
to  see  Jesus,  seem  to  teach  that  Jesus  will  win  by  His 
death  the  fruit  denied  to  Him  in  His  life,  viz.  the  con- 
version of  the  Gentiles. 

We  return,  however,  to  the  other  explanation,  viz. 
that  the  many  are  all  those  who  from  first  to  last  enter 
the  kingdom  of  God.  This  is  the  interpretation  of 
Ritschl  {Rechtfertigung  und  Versohnung^  ^  ii.  pp.  80-83). 
In  favour  of  this  is  to  be  alleged  the  general  doctrine 
of  the  New  Testament,  if  we  prefer  to  explain  the 
isolated  saying  of  Jesus  (Mark  x.  45)  by  the  general 
tenor  of  the  views  of  the  early  Christian  Church.  There 
is  no  doubt,  that  even  if  historically  the  first  reference 
of  Mark  x.  45  and  John  xii.  24-32  may  be  to  those 
brought  into  the  kingdom  after  the  death  of  Jesus,  in 
the  early  Christian  Church  such  sayings  would  have 
been  interpreted  with  the  wider  reference  at  least  to  all 
who  enter  the  kingdom ;  and  it  is  a  question  whether, 
even  if  Wendt  is  right  as  to  the  historical  applica- 
tion of  the  sayings,  beneath  this  first  reference  the 
principle  asserted  by  Ritschl  is  not  contained.     There 


72      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

cannot  well  be  two  ways  of  redemption  into  the  king- 
dom of  God,  one  for  the  first  disciples  and  another  for 
those  converted  after  the  death  of  Jesus.  Nor  is  it 
thinkable  that  Jesus  Himself  could  have  entertained  such 
a  distinction,  even  though  historically  the  first  reference 
of  His  words  may  have  been  as  Wendt  says. 

The  final  question,  then,  is,  How  is  the  death  of  Jesus 
a  ransom?  The  literal  translation  of  the  Greek  of 
Mark  x.  45  is  "  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  instead  of 
many."  Are  we  to  take  the  phrase,  "  a  ransom  instead 
of"  as  simply  occasioned  by  the  figure  of  deliverance 
from  captivity?  And  is  the  meaning,  then,  that  the 
death  of  Jesus  delivers  men  from  sin  as  a  ransom 
delivers  men  from  bondage,  the  parallel,  however,  being 
only  in  the  idea  of  deliverance,  and  the  way  in  which 
the  death  of  Jesus  delivers  men  having  to  be  inferred 
not  from  the  figure  of  ransom,  but  from  general 
considerations  ? 

Or  are  we  to  look  for  light  on  the  way  in  which  the 
death  of  Jesus  delivers  men,  from  the  actual  turn  of 
the  phrase,  ''  a  ransom  instead  of  many  "  ?  Then  there  is 
no  doubt  that  the  explanation  lying  nearest  to  hand  is 
that  suggested  by  the  passages  previously  referred  to  in 
the  books  of  Maccabees  (see  above,  p.  38).     As  the 


THE    DEATH    OF    JESUS  73 

Jewish  martyr  prayed  that  his  death  might  atone  for  the 
sins  of  his  compatriots,  so  Jesus  regards  His  death,  ac- 
cording to  this  explanation,  as  an  atonement  for  the  sin 
of  all  the  members  of  the  kingdom  of  God ;  for  this 
is  the  interpretation  which  in  this  case  we  shall  have  to 
put  upon  the  "many."  The  Jewish  martyr  offers  his 
death  that  all  Israel  may  be  saved^  and  Jesus  that  the 
spiritual  Israel  may  be  saved. 

This  last  interpretation,  which  seems  to  the  writer 
most  probable,  may  perhaps  seem  to  the  reader  unduly 
to  limit  the  range  of  Christ's  atonement,  and  to  conflict 
with  other  passages  in  the  New  Testament,  such  as 
I.  John  i.  2,  where  Jesus  is  said  to  be  the  propitiation 
for  the  sins,  not  of  believers  only,  but  of  the  whole 
world.  Of  course  the  first  answer  to  this  objection  is 
that  we  are  here  concerned  with  historical  theology, 
and  our  prime  business  is  not  to  reconcile  one  passage 
in  the  New  Testament  with  another,  but  simply  to  state 
what  we  find  in  each  case ;  nor,  again,  to  make  our  result 
square  with  our  convictions  of  what  ought  to  be,  but 
rather  to  record  exactly  what  we  find.  But  there  is  a 
further  answer.  In  reality  this  view  of  the  atonement, 
so  far  from  limiting  the  application  of  the  benefit  of  the 
death  of  Christ,  points  to  a  deeper  conception  of  the 


74      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

idea  of  atonement.  Since  Jesus  offers  His  death,  not 
for  a  definite  number  like  Eleazar,  but  for  the  indefinite 
*'many,"  who  become  members  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  it  is  clear  that  the  merely  external  idea  of 
substitutionary  sacrifice,  such  as  we  find  in  Maccabees, 
is  transcended.  If  Christ's  atonement  avails  only  for 
those  who  are  brought  into  the  kingdom  (and,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  entrance  into  the  kingdom  can  take 
place  only  through  their  subjugation  to  His  person), 
then  it  is  evident  that  there  must  be  some  deep-lying 
connection  between  the  atonement  and  the  personal 
influence  of  the  Saviour.  We  have,  in  fact,  to  postulate 
in  Mark  x.  45  such  an  ethical  interpretation  of  the  idea 
of  substitutionary  sacrifice  as  is  given  in  Isa.  Hi.  13- 
liii.  12 — a  passage  which,  it  is  important  to  observe, 
actually  influenced  the  mind  of  Jesus,  when  contem- 
plating His  death  (Luke  xxii.  37  ;  compare  Isa.  liii.  12). 
The  result  to  which  we  have  been  led  simply  by 
consideration  of  Mark  x.  45  is  confirmed  by  the  other 
passage  in  which  Jesus  speaks  of  the  benefit  of  His 
death  (Mark  xiv.  22-25).  Here  He  views  His  death 
as  a  covenant  sacrifice,  establishing  a  new  covenant 
between  God  and  man.  In  a  symbolical  action  this 
sacrifice  is  set  forth  under  the  figures  of  broken  bread 


THE    DEATH    OF    JESUS  75 

and  outpoured  wine,  which  represent  the  body  and 
blood  of  the  slain  Victim.  Jesus  then  calls  His  dis- 
ciples to  participate  of  the  bread  and  the  wine,  that  is 
to  say,  of  the  sacrifice.  The  idea  ©f  sacrificial  com- 
munion, previously  explained,  is  thus  used  to  illustrate 
the  way  in  which  the  disciples  share  the  benefits  of  the 
death  of  Jesus.  As  before  Jesus  spoke  of  His  life  as 
given  for  many,  so  now  He  speaks  of  His  blood  as 
shed  for  many  (Matt.  xxvi.  28  adds,  "  for  the  remission 
of  sins ").  We  note  in  passing  that  as  here  there  is 
no  question  but  that  the  disciples  who  are  in  symbol 
invited  to  participate  of  the  sacrifice  are  included  in 
the  "  many,"  a  light  is  reflected  back  upon  the  "  many  " 
of  Mark  x.  45,  who,  from  the  parallelism  of  the  passages, 
are  presumably  the  same  "  many ; "  and  thus  from  a 
new  point  of  view  we  get  fresh  confirmation  of  the 
correctness  of  Ritschl's  interpretation  of  Mark  x.  45, 
as  over  against  Wendt's. 

To  return  to  Mark  xiv.  22-25.  Many  ideas  combine 
in  this  perhaps  richest  of  all  presentations  of  the  efficacy 
of  the  death  of  Jesus.  There  is  an  allusion  to  the 
founding  of  the  old  covenant,  as  recorded  in  Exod. 
xxiv.  i-ii,  which  covenant  was  also  established  by  a 
sacrifice,  by  which  Israel  was  brought  into  communion 


76      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

with  God.  Still  more  is  there  a  reference  to  Jeremiah's 
prophecy  of  the  kingdom  of  God  under  the  figure  of 
a  new  covenant,  the  special  features  of  which  are  the 
law  implanted  in  the  heart,  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
(Jer.  xxxi.  31-34).  The  thought,  then,  is  that  the 
salvation  which  Jeremiah  prophesied  as  future  is  now 
realised  as  present,  being  mediated  by  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ,  which  establishes  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  the 
sacrifice  of  Moses  established  God's  first  covenant 
with  Israel. 

If  we  may  regard  as  a  piece  of  the  original  tradition 
of  the  words  of  Jesus,  the  addition  in  Matt.  xxvi.  28 
of  the  words  "for  the  remission  of  sins,"  the  sacrifice 
of  Jesus  is  further  thought  of  as  expiatory,  just  as  in 
Mark  x.  45.  This  is  not  contrary  to  the  fact  that  it  is 
a  covenant  sacrifice,  or  that  its  virtue  in  bringing  men 
into  connection  with  God  is  connected  with  participation. 
In  ancient  ideas  of  sacrifice,  one  interpretation  was  not 
necessarily  exclusive  of  another.  It  is  true  that  in  the 
priestly  code  the  sacrifices  of  atonement  were  distin- 
guished from  those  of  communion  in  that  the  former 
were  not  participated  of  by  the  worshippers,  while  the 
latter  were  so.  But  this  differentiation  is  of  late  origin, 
and    does    not    represent    the    only    way    of  regarding 


THE    DEATH    OF    JESUS  77 

sacrifice.  With  the  rule  of  the  priestly  code  may  be 
compared  what  Robertson  Smith  says  of  sacrifice  in 
early  Israel  ("  Religion  of  the  Semites,"  2  p.  237) :  "  The 
old  history  knows  nothing  of  the  levitical  sin-offering ; 
the  atoning  function  of  sacrifice  is  not  confined  to  a 
particular  class  of  oblation,  but  belongs  to  all  sacrifices." 
That  is,  in  ancient  Israel,  not  sacrifices  wholly  made 
over  to  God  only,  but  sacrifices  of  communion,  were 
regarded  as  atoning.  There  is  no  contradiction,  there- 
fore, in  the  combination  of  the  ideas  of  atonement  and 
communion  in  Mark  xiv.  22-25. 

The  new  idea,  however,  of  communion  or  participa- 
tion, which  this  passage  contains  over  above  the  idea  of 
atonement,  vrhich  it  has  in  common  with  Mark  x.  45, 
is  of  the  utmost  importance  in  determining  how  we  are 
to  interpret  the  idea  of  atonement  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus.  It  points  again  to  the  fact  that  the  external 
idea  of  substitution  requires  to  be  transcended,  before 
we  arrive  at  Christ's  own  view  of  His  death  as  an 
atonement.  It  brings  out  even  more  clearly  than  before 
the  point  that  subjective  conditions  required  to  be  ful- 
filled before  the  death  of  Jesus  is  efficacious  as  an 
atonement. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE   SPEECHES   OF   PETER   IN   THE   ACTS 

It  is  the  future  salvation  which  fills  the  mind  of  the 
early  Church,  as  represented  to  us  by  the  speeches  of 
Peter  in  Acts.  The  message  of  the  Apostles  to  their 
countrymen  is  first  that  Jesus  is  the  Messiah  (ii.  36) ; 
as  has  been  conclusively  declared  by  His  resurrection, 
of  which  they  are  witnesses  (ii.  32).  His  death,  sinful 
as  had  been  the  action  of  the  Jewish  rulers  in  bringing 
it  about,  was  in  accordance  with  the  Divine  purposes 
(ii.  23),  and  had  been  foretold  in  Old  Testament 
scripture  (iii.  14).  That  it  had  taken  place  was  there- 
fore only  an  additional  proof  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah. 
The  apostolic  message  is  next  that,  though  Jesus  has 
been  thus  shown  by  His  resurrection  to  be  the  Messiah, 
the  Messianic  salvation  still  remains  to  be  realised 
(iii.  19-22).  Jesus  was  not  at  once  restored  to  His 
nation  by  the  resurrection :  he  only  showed  Himself  to 
His  chosen  witnesses  among  the  Apostles,  that  they  might 
proclaim  His  Messiahship,     In  the  words  of  Beyschlag 

(•'New  Testament  Theology,"  Eng.  trans.,  i.  p.  315): 

78 


THE    SPEECHES    OF    PETER       79 

"God  had  taken  Him  back  into  His  heaven,  as  if  to 
wait  to  see  whether  the  people  would  repent  of  their 
outrage,  and  make  themselves  again  worthy  of  their 
Messiah.  This  view,  which  though  strange  to  us  was 
quite  familiar  in  the  thoughts  of  the  original  Apostles, 
is  especially  prominent  in  the  passage.  Acts  iii.  19-21." 

The  present,  therefore,  is  a  time  of  repentance,  during 
which  God  gives  to  Israel  opportunity  to  return  to  Him, 
and  the  Apostles  consequently  renew  the  call  to  repent- 
ance of  Jesus  Himself,  promising  to  those  who  repent  and 
are  baptized  the  advent  of  the  great  Messianic  salvation. 
But  the  repentance  required  is  no  longer  the  general 
repentance  taught  by  Jesus.  It  is  the  specific  wicked- 
ness of  the  Jewish  nation,  misguided  by  their  rulers,  in 
crucifying  Jesus,  that  requires  to  be  repented  of ;  and 
the  positive  side  of  this  repentance  is  faith  in  Jesus  as 
the  Messiah.  He  is  proclaimed  as  the  only  Saviour 
(iv.  12)  in  the  approaching  day  when  those  who  reject 
Him  will  be  cut  off. 

All  this  has  reference  to  the  future  salvation.  In  the 
present,  however,  the  forgiveness  of  sins  may  be  enjoyed 
(iii.  19);  and  in  the  present,  too,  as  harbinger  of  the 
great  coming  salvation,  the  Spirit  has  been  poured  out 
upon  the  company  of  believers  (ii.  15-18);  so  that  this 
gift,  too,  may  be  received  by  the  repentant  (ii.  38). 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  THEOLOGY   OF   PAUL 

§  I.  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  GOD 

We  begin,  as  in  our  study  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  with 
the  doctrine  of  God ;  since  this  is  what  determines  the 
idea  of  salvation.  Paul's  doctrine  of  God  is  not  com- 
pletely unified.  As  a  general  background  we  have  the 
idea  of  the  one  God  (L  Cor.  viii.  4-6),  who  is  the  source 
and  goal  of  the  universe  (Rom.  xi.  36  ;  I.  Cor.  xv.  28). 
Next  we  have  conceptions  which  come  straight  from  the 
Old  Testament,  without  Christian  transformation  or  even 
modification,  e.g.  the  notion  of  the  wrath  of  God,  as  in 
Rom.  i.  18,  iii.  5,  v.  9.  Paul  never  inquires  how  this  Old 
Testament  conception  is  to  be  harmonised  in  one  per- 
sonal unity  of  character  with  the  Fatherhood  which 
Jesus  teaches.  A  mediation,  however,  is  seen  in  the  idea 
of  God's  righteousness,  which  with  Paul  by  no  means 
always  means  simply  justice,  as  in  Rom.  iii.  5,  but  in  its 
most  characteristic   Pauline   use  includes   saving   grace 

(Rom.  iii.  21,  22,  27).     Here  Paul  follows  the  Old  Testa- 

80 


THE    DOCTRINE    OF    GOD  8i 

ment  conception  of  God's  righteousness,  especially  as 
found  in  the  second  Isaiah  and  the  Psalms  (see  the  discus- 
sion of  the  idea  above,  in  connection  with  Isa.  xl.-lv.). 

Finally  we  have  the  specifically  Christian  conception  of 
God,  the  idea  of  His  free  grace  and  love.  Just  as  with 
Jesus,  so  with  Paul,  God  is  Father  (Rom.  i.  8,  viii.  15  ; 
Gal.  i.  3,  iv.  6  ;  I.  Cor.  i.  3  ;  Phil.  i.  2  ;  Col.  i.  12  ;  Eph.  i. 
2),  and  that  of  every  family,  both  in  heaven  and  earth 
(Eph.  iii.  14,  15).  The  "abba"  of  Jesus,  says  Holtzmann 
{Neutestameiitliche  Theologie^  ii.  p.  96),  is  verbally 
retained,  as  though  the  natural  speech  of  the  Christian 
soul. 

Above  all,  God  is  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
(Rom.  XV.  16;  II.  Cor.  i.  6;  Col.  i.  3),  whom  He  loves 
as  His  other  self  (Rom.  viii.  32  :  "  His  ozvn  Son  ").  In 
Him  God's  love  is  completely  revealed.  This  is  the 
central  point,  not  only  of  Paul's  theology,  but  also  of 
his  religion.  The  grace  of  the  one  is  the  grace  of  the 
other  (Rom.  v.  15).  The  love  of  God  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord  (Rom.  viii.  35,  39).  The  love  of  Christ, 
who  gave  Himself  for  us  (Gal.  ii.  20,  Eph.  v.  2,  25),  is 
the  revelation  of  the  love  of  God,  who  gave  Him  to  die 
for  us  (Rom.  v.  8). 

Hence,  in  Paul's  doctrine  of  salvation,  it  is  made  plain 
throughout  that  salvation  is  at  once  the  work  of  God 


82      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

and  the  work  of  Christ.  This  idea,  essential  to  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  is  by  Paul  placed  in  the  centre  of  his 
whole  view.  At  the  same  time  the  name  of  Jesus  for 
salvation,  viz.  the  kingdom  of  God,  in  the  theology  of 
Paul  retires  into  the  background,  and  is,  at  least  in 
connection  with  present  salvation,  replaced  by  others, 
the  most  characteristic  of  which  is  the  phrase  "  in  Christ.'' 
Salvation  is  in  general  to  be  "  in  Christ."  All  this  will 
become  clear,  as  we  study  Paul's  conception  of  salvation 
both  as  present  and  future.  It  is  especially  clear  in  the 
idea  of  present  salvation,  in  which  Paul's  originality 
specially  appears. 

§2.  FUTURE  SALVATION 

We  begin,  however,  with  the  Pauline  conception  of 
future  salvation ;  for,  just  as  in  the  case  of  Jesus,  present 
salvation  is  regarded  by  Paul  as  an  anticipation  of  future 
salvation,  and  the  peculiar  character  of  the  Pauline 
descriptions  only  becomes  clear  when  the  subject  is 
discussed  in  this  order. 

The  name,  kingdom  of  God,  which,  as  was  observed 
just  now,  has  almost  disappeared  from  Paul's  vocabulary 
as  a  description  of  present  salvation,  is  still  used  by  him 
to  describe  future  salvation.     This  he  connects,  like  the 


FUTURE    SALVATION  83 

early  Church  in  general,  in  the  closest  way  with  the 
Panisia  of  Christ.  His  thought  on  the  whole  subject, 
however,  undergoes  considerable  changes  in  the  different 
stages  of  his  teaching.  Charles  ("  Eschatology  "  in  "  En- 
cyclopaedia Biblica,"  col.  1381)  distinguishes  four  stages, 
attested  by  (i)  I.  and  II.  Thessalonians,  (2)1.  Corinthians, 
(3)  II.  Corinthians  and  Romans,  (4)  Philippians,  Colos- 
sians,  and  Ephesians. 

In  I.  and  II.  Thessalonians  the  Parusia  appears  not 
only  as  the  day  of  salvation  for  the  people  of  Christ, 
but  also  as  the  day  of  judgment  and  punishment  of  the 
wicked.  "  This  judgment  deals  with  Antichrist  and  all 
the  wicked,  whether  Jews  or  Gentiles,  whether  simply 
careless  or  actively  hostile.  The  doom  of  the  wicked  is 
*  eternal  destruction  '  (II.  Thess.  i.  9 ;  compare  I.  Thess. 
V.  3;  II.  Thess.  ii.  10)"  ("Eschatology,"  col.  1382). 
The  resurrection  is  of  those  who  have  died  before  the 
advent  of  Christ ;  while  those  who  survive  to  see  Christ 
are  caught  up  with  them  "  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air  " 
(I.  Thess.  iv.  17).  "  There  is  no  reference  to  a  resurrec- 
tion of  the  wicked  in  the  two  epistles "  (Charles,  col. 
T382).  The  world  appears  to  be  given  up  to  destruction, 
while  Christ's  people  are  raised  even  as  He  (I  Thess. 
iv.  14) ;  that  is,  not  to  an  earthly  life,  but  to  the  obtaining 
of  the  glory  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  kingdom  of 


84      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

God(II.Thess.  ii.  14;  cp.  I.  Thess.  ii.  12  :  II.  Thess.  i.  5). 
There  they  are  ever  with  the  Lord  (I.  Thess.  iv.  17). 

The  description  of  future  salvation  in  I.  Corinthians 
is  not  very  different.  The  Parusia  again  appears  as 
the  day  of  judgment  (I.  Cor.  i.  6,  v.  5,  viii.  13).  The 
resurrection  is  again  for  those  who  belong  to  Christ. 
As  God  has  raised  up  Christ,  so  will  He  also  raise  us 
(1.  Cor.  vi.  14).  It  is  then  in  Christ  that  men  are 
made  alive  (I.  Cor.  xv.  22).  The  resurrection  body  is 
spiritual  (I.  Cor.  xv.  44).  "Flesh  and  blood  cannot 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God"  (I.  Cor.  xv.  50).  The 
righteous  dead  are  raised,  and  the  righteous  living  are 
transfigured,  in  order  to  share  in  the  kingdom  (I.  Cor. 
XV.  51,  52).  With  this,  death  is  finally  overcome 
(I.  Cor.  XV.  26).  A  remarkable  feature  in  the  eschato- 
logy  of  I.  Corinthians  is  this  :  Paul  regards  the  king- 
dom of  Christ  as  finally  lost  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
The  Messiah  re-delivers  His  authority  to  God,  its 
source  (I.  Cor.  xv.  24).  We  may  compare  with  this 
doctrine  the  idea  of  a  temporary  kingdom  of  the 
Messiah,  which  we  previously  found  in  some  of  the 
Jewish  Apocalypses :  the  great  New  Testament  parallel 
is,  of  course,  the  idea  of  the  Millennium  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse of  John,  which  was  previously  mentioned  as  being 
in  the  line  of  the  aforesaid  Jewish  Apocalypses.     To 


FUTURE    SALVATION  85 

return  to  Paul,  he  depicts  as  the  final  bliss  of  the 
kingdom,  that  the  righteous,  in  immediate  communion, 
see  God  face  to  face  (I.  Cor.  xiii.  12). 

In  II.  Corinthians  and  Romans  great  changes  are 
observable  in  the  view  of  future  salvation.  The  crisis 
of  Paul's  thought  on  the  subject,  in  fact,  lies  between 
I.  Corinthians  and  II.  Corinthians,  and  it  is  natural 
to  connect  the  change  in  his  view  with  the  experience 
mentioned  in  II.  Cor.  i.  8,  9,  in  which  Paul  had  been 
brought  face  to  face  with  death,  and  thus  driven  to 
consider  more  closely  than  ever  before  the  power  of 
God  in  the  resurrection.  Paul,  in  his  desire  to  be 
immediately  with  God  after  death,  seems  to  have  put 
to  himself  the  question :  Why  should  the  righteous 
"sleep"  until  the  Parusia,  and  only  then  be  raised? 
(Compare  I.  Cor.  xv.  51,  52.)  Why  should  not  the 
resurrection  power  of  God  manifest  itself  immediately 
at  death,  so  that  communion  with  God  may  begin  at 
once?  Paul,  we  observe,  unlike  the  Alexandrian 
Judaism,  has  no  idea  of  the  communion  of  the  un- 
bodied spirit  with  God. 

Not  everything  is  changed  in  the  new  view.  W^e 
have  the  Parusia  as  before,  and  with  it  the  Day  of 
Judgment  (II.  Cor.  i.  14).  Christ  Himself  is  the  Judge 
(II.  Cor.  V.  10),  or  otherwise  God  (Rom.  xiv.  10).     [We 


S6      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

observe  the  same  variation  here  as  in  the  representations 
of  Jesus.]  All  men  must  appear  before  the  judgment- 
seat  (Rom.  xiv.  lo),  and  judgment  is  according  to 
works  (Rom.  ii.  6;  II.  Cor.  v.  lo,  xi.  15). 

But  Paul  no  longer  defers  the  possession  of  the 
resurrection  body  for  the  righteous  until  the  Parusia. 
"The  main  evidence  for  this,"  says  Dr.  Charles  (col. 
1385)5  "is  found  in  II.  Cor.  v.  1-8  (where  a  specially 
careful  translation  is  required ;  see,  e.g.j  Weizsacker's)." 
It  seems  best,  therefore,  to  give  Weizsacker's  translation 
of  II.  Cor.  V.  1-8  in  full.  Rendered  into  English  from 
the  stereotype  edition  of  his  Z>as  Neue  Testament  iiber- 
seizt,  it  is  as  follows  : — 

"  But  we  know  that  when  our  earthly  tent-dwelling  is 
dissolved,  we  have  a  building  from  God,  a  house  not 
made  with  hands,  eternal  in  heaven.  Therefore  we 
sigh,  desiring  to  be  over-clothed  with  our  habitation 
from  heaven;  we  shall  not,  however,  be  found  naked, 
when  we  put  it  on.  We  sigh,  namely,  while  we  are  in 
the  tent ;  it  presses  upon  us,  so  that  we  shall  not  be 
first  unclothed,  but  rather  over-clothed,  in  order  that 
the  mortal  may  be  swallowed  up  of  life.  For  thereto 
hath  God  prepared  us.  He  indeed,  who  has  given  us 
the  earnest  of  the  Spirit.  We  are  of  good  cheer,  there- 
fore, in  the  consciousness  of  the  home  with  the  Lord, 


FUTURE    SALVATION  -87 

which  we  lack,  so  long  as  we  have  our  home  in  the 
body — for  we  walk  by  faith,  and  not  by  sight — we  are 
yet  of  good  cheer,  and  our  thought  is  bent  to  this,  to 
change  the  home  in  the  body  for  the  home  in  the 
Lord ;  therefore  we  set  everything  on  this,  to  please 
Him,  away  from  home  as  at  home :  we  must,  however, 
all  be  manifest  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ, 
that  each  one  may  obtain  his  portion  from  the  life 
in  the  body,  to  which  his  deeds  tended,  be  it  good  or 
bad." 

Upon  this  passage,  Dr.  Charles  further  observes  as 
follows  (loc.  at.)  :  "  In  ver.  4,  Paul  declares  his  wish  to 
live  till  the  Parusia,  in  order  that  he  may  escape  the 
destruction  of  the  earthly  body,  and  be  transformed 
alive.  In  other  verses  he  faces  the  possibility  of  death, 
and  comforts  himself  and  his  readers  with  the  prospect 
before  them.  When  we  die,  we  have — we  come  into 
possession  of — an  immortal  body  in  heaven." 

Hence  the  Parusia  is  no  longer  the  time  of  the  resur- 
rection of  the  righteous  dead  to  glory,  but  of  the 
manifestation  of  the  glory  they  already  possess  (Rom. 
viii.  19  :  so,  later.  Col.  iii.  4). 

In  Philippians,  Colossians,  and  Ephesians,  the  fresh 
development  is  that  the  idea  of  the  final  resignation 
of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  to  the  Father  is  abandoned 


88      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

in  favour  of  the  view  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is 
everlasting.  The  final  kingdom  is  the  kingdom  of  God 
and  Christ  (Eph.  v.  5).  This  view  is  accompanied  by 
the  further  doctrine  that  the  mediation  of  salvation 
through  Christ  extends  not  only  to  men,  but  to 
angels.  All  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  visible  and 
invisible  (whether  thrones  or  dominions  or  princi- 
palities or  powers),  are  intended  to  find  their  con- 
summation in  Christ  as  their  head  (Col.  i.  16;  Eph. 
i.  10).  Those  spiritual  beings,  therefore,  which  have 
sinned  or  apostatised  must  ultimately  be  reconciled  to 
God  through  Him  (Col.  i.  20),  and  join  in  His  worship 
(Phil.  ii.  10). 

Here  we  reach  the  final  phase  of  Paul's  thought 
on  future  salvation.  It  may  be  added  that  Paul  has 
not  in  any  stage  completely  systematised  his  views 
on  this  subject.  Dr.  Charles,  however,  summarises 
the  ultimate  tendency  of  Paul's  thought  as  follows : 
"  Since  all  things  must  be  reconciled  and  summed 
up  in  Christ,  there  can  be  no  room  finally  in  the 
universe  for  a  wicked  being,  whether  human  or  angelic. 
Thus  the  Pauline  eschatology  points  obviously  in  its 
ultimate  issues  either  to  the  final  redemption  of  all 
created  beings  or  the  destruction  of  the  finally  im- 
penitent" ("  Eschatology,"  col.  1386).     It  is  noteworthy 


PRESENT    SALVATION  89 

that  throughout  Paul's  epistles  there  is  no  mention 
of  a  general  resurrection  of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked 
alike.  It  will  appear,  when  we  have  discussed  Paul's 
ideas  of  present  salvation,  that  according  to  his  views 
there  could  not  be  a  resurrection  of  the  wicked.  It 
is  necessary,  therefore,  to  point  out  that  in  Acts  xxiv. 
15,  where  a  belief  in  a  general  resurrection  is  attri- 
buted to  Paul,  we  cannot  have  an  accurate  report 
of  his  doctrine  (see  further  Charles,  col.  1382,  note  3). 


§  3.  PRESENT  SALVATION 

The  teaching  of  Paul  on  present  salvation  falls  into 
three  stages,  the  first  and  last  of  which  correspond  to 
the  first  and  last  stages  of  his  teaching  on  future  salva- 
tion ;  while  the  single  middle  stage  here  corresponds 
to  the  two  middle  stages  of  teaching  there.  The  only 
difference  is  that  in  the  new  grouping  Philippians  falls, 
by  its  theological  affinities,  together  with  the  middle 
group  of  epistles  rather  than  with  the  epistles  con- 
temporary with  it.  We  thus  obtain  the  groups : 
(i)  I.  and  II.  Thessalonians ;  (2)  Galatians,  I.  and  II. 
Corinthians,  Romans,  Philippians;  (3)  Ephesians  and 
Colossians. 


90      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 


I.     AND     II.     ThESSALONIANS 

The  teaching  of  these  "primer  epistles,"  as  Bruce 
calls  them,  need  not  long  detain  us.  There  is  in  them 
little  doctrine  of  present  salvation.  The  state  of 
Christians  is  rather  that  of  those  who  wait  for  Christ's 
second  coming  (I.  Thess.  i.  lo);  so  that  their  faith, 
or  belief  in  Christ's  Messiahship,  appears  as  the  basis 
of  their  hope  (I.  Thess.  i.  3,  v.  8,  9).  Meanwhile, 
however,  they  enjoy  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  (I.  Thess. 
iv.  8),  and  their  faith  finds  practical  expression  in 
patience  under  persecution  (I.  Thess.  iii.  2,  3,  7,  8,  v.  8). 
So  far  is  Paul  from  his  later  antithesis  of  faith  and 
works,  that  in  I.  Thess.  i.  3  he  speaks  of  the  work 
of  faith. 

GaLATIANS,     I.     AND     II.     CoRINTHIANS,     ROMANS, 

Philippians 

In  these  epistles  we  find  the  most  characteristic  form 
of  Pauline  doctrine,  which  must  now  be  considered  at 
some  length.  Peculiar  to  it  above  all  is  the  fact  that 
what  Jesus  includes  under  the  single  head  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  is  here  by  Paul  split  up  into  two 
hemispheres,  which  in  general  he  keeps  apart,  though 


JUSTIFICATION  91 

attempts  to  establish  a  connection  between  them  are 
not  altogether  wanting. 

For  these  two  halves  of  salvation  Paul  uses  a  very 
varied  vocabulary.  The  first  is  described  as  justifica- 
tion, or  adoption,  or  sometimes  reconciliation;  the 
second  appears  either  as  mystical  union  with  Christ, 
or  as  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  The  word  redemption  is 
used  for  both  alternately. 

Common  to  both  hemispheres  is  an  ultimate  reference 
to  the  idea  of  future  salvation.  It  is  in  each  case  the 
anticipation  of  the  final  salvation  in  one  of  its  aspects, 
that  Paul  has  in  view.  This  comes  out  especially 
clearly,  when  the  two  aspects  of  present  salvation  are 
defined  as  justification  and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit, 


§  4.  JUSTIFICATION 

To  begin  with  justification :  we  saw  that  in  the 
Pharisaic  theology  justification  signifies  the  verdict  of 
God's  final  judgment  upon  a  man,  accepting  him  as 
righteous  in  His  sight,  and  which  gives  him  a  claim 
to  enter  into  the  future  kingdom  of  God.  Justification 
is  thus  with  the  Pharisees  an  immediately  eschato- 
logical  conception  ;  though  the  final  decision  of  God  may 
indeed  be  conceived  as  anticipated  at  the  man's  death. 


92      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Paul  takes  the  conception  from  the  Pharisaic  theology, 
in  which  he  had  been  educated ;  but  makes  the  great 
change  that  he  relates  the  idea  of  justification  to  present 
salvation.  With  Paul  justification  means  the  right  to 
the  enjoyment  of  salvation  here  and  now  (Rom.  v.  i,  2). 
To  be  justified  by  faith  (ver.  i)  is  equivalent  to  having 
had  access  into  God's  grace,  so  as  now  to  have  a 
standing  in  it  (ver.  2).  Compare  also  ver.  8,  "  being 
now  justified  by  His  blood."  Also  see  I.  Cor.  vi.  11  : 
"ye  were  justified."  These  references  clearly  exhibit 
the  significance  of  justification  as  an  aspect  of  present 
salvation.  The  eschatological  reference  of  the  conception 
is,  however,  never  wholly  lost.  It  is  always  implied  that 
the  right  to  salvation  here  and  now,  and  the  right  to 
final  salvation,  are  one.  It  is,  however,  the  notion  of 
present  justification  which  is  characteristic  of  Paul. 
In  opposition  to  the  Pharisaic  idea  of  justification  by 
works,  previously  explained — i.e.  the  conception  that  a 
man's  right  to  salvation  depends  on  his  observance  of  the 
law,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  setded  till  his  life  account 
is  closed — Paul  uses  the  idea  of  justification  to  express 
the  present  right  of  the  Christian  to  salvation,  which  God 
Himself  bestows.  The  particular  aspect  of  salvation, 
which  Paul  has  here  in  mind,  is  the  right  to  communion 
with  God,  the  right  to  call  Him  Father,  and  find  rest 


JUSTIFICATION  93 

in  the  thought  of  His  providential  care.  Adoption, 
therefore  (Gal.  iv.  5;  Rom.  viii.  15),  is  another  name 
for  this  aspect  of  salvation,  which  brings  out  clearly 
the  fact  that  the  position  of  sonship  is  the  free  gift 
of  God. 

Again,  in  connection  with  this  new  idea  the  eschato- 
logical  reference  is  as  clear  as  in  the  case  of  justification. 
The  right  to  present  and  future  salvation  are  thought 
under  it  as  one.  The  right  of  sonship  includes  within 
itself  all  rights,  whether  to  present  or  future  salvation. 
Hence  Paul  says  (Rom.  viii.  17):  "If  children,  then 
heirs ;  heirs  of  God,  and  joint-heirs  with  Christ."  And 
in  Rom.  viii.  23,  Paul  actually  uses  the  name  adoption 
to  signify  not  the  present  but  the  future  salvation, 
a  fact  which  strikingly  illustrates  the  eschatological 
connection  of  the  conception.  To  sum  up,  justification 
or  adoption  is,  in  this  characteristic  view  of  Paul,  God's 
final  decision  as  to  the  position  of  the  believer,  already 
anticipated  in  the  present  life;  though  as  yet  full 
entrance  into  all  that  the  believer  thus  has  a  right 
to  has  not  yet  been  given. 

Meanwhile,  however,  he  enjoys  the  sure  hope  of 
glory,  a  hope  which  even  tribulations  only  serve  to 
confirm,  since  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts  by   the   Holy   Spirit   (Rom.   v.   1-6).     Observe 


94      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

here  the  opposition  not  only  to  the  Pharisaic  point 
of  view,  but  to  that  of  the  Old  Testament,  according 
to  which  calamities  led  men  to  doubt  God's  favour, 
and  salvation  was  seen  just  in  the  removal  of  cala- 
mities. Nowhere  is  this  more  apparent  than  in  the 
way  in  which  Paul  in  Rom.  viii.  36  quotes  from  Ps. 
xliv.  22  the  words:  "For  Thy  sake  we  are  killed  all 
the  day  long,  we  are  accounted  as  sheep  for  the 
slaughter."  In  the  mouth  of  the  Old  Testament  writer 
these  calamities  appear  as  a  proof  that  God  has  for- 
saken His  people  (Ps.  xliv.  9).  What  Paul  has  10  say 
of  them  is :  "  Nay,  in  all  these  things  we  are  more 
than  conquerors  through  Him  that  loved  us"  (Rom. 
viii.  37).  We  have  here  an  exact  repetition  of  the 
ideas  developed  by  Jesus  under  the  wider  point  of 
view  of  sonship  (Matt.  v.  4,  vi.  25-34 ;  Luke  xii.  32). 

Paul  grounds  the  comfortable  assurance  of  present 
salvation  on  the  grace  of  God  or  His  free  love  (Rom.  iii. 
24),  which,  indeed,  is  the  source  of  all  salvation,  whether 
present  or  future.  The  whole  process  of  salvation, 
in  fact,  appears  to  Paul  as  one  (Rom.  viii.  30) ;  so  that 
he  says,  "  whom  He  justified  He  also  glorified."  Paul 
in  all  this  simply  reproduces,  in  his  own  way,  Luke 
xii.  32. 


THE    GIFT    OF   THE    SPIRIT       95 

§  S   THE  GIFT   OF  THE  SPIRIT 

The  other  half  of  present  salvation  in  the  view  we  are 
now  considering  is  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  Perhaps  the 
connection  of  this  with  future  salvation  is  most  clearly 
expressed  in  a  phrase  not  in  our  group  of  epistles,  but 
in  Eph.  i.  14,  where  Paul  speaks  of  the  Spirit  as  the 
"earnest  of  our  inheritance."  The  phrase,  however, 
exactly  sums  up  the  view  of  the  gift  of  the  Spirit, 
which  is  found  in  the  epistles  we  are  dealing  with.  Its 
signification  is  that  the  future  salvation  is  of  the  same 
nature  as  the  salvation  contained  in  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit.  The  difference  between  them  is  not  qualitative, 
but  quantitative  only.  The  gift  of  the  Spirit  here  is 
thus  the  partial  anticipation  of  future  salvation ;  as 
Paul  says  in  Rom.  viii.  23,  "we  have  the  first-fruits 
of  the  Spirit."  This  becomes  clearer  still  when  we 
see  that  Paul  regards  the  Spirit  as  the  principle  and 
power  of  immortal  life,  bestowed  on  men  even  while 
in  the  body.  Here  a  light  is  cast  back  upon  certain 
facts  in  the  middle  stages  of  the  Pauline  eschatology, 
which  we  are  now  in  a  position  to  appreciate.  We  see 
how  it  was  that  Paul  moved  from  his  early  idea  that 
the  resurrection  body  is  bestowed  on  the  righteous  at 
the  Parusia,  and  came  instead  to  the  view  that  it  be- 


96      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

comes  their  possession  at  death.  They  have,  in  fact, 
by  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  the  principle  of  eternal  life  within 
them  already  in  the  present  life ;  and  this  principle 
only  awaits  the  death  of  the  mortal  body  to  embody 
itself  in  a  new  and  spiritual  habitation.  This  notion  is 
already  in  principle  contained  in  Paul's  teaching  about 
the  nature  of  the  resurrection  body,  when  he  compares 
the  resurrection  with  the  germination  of  a  seed  (I.  Cor. 
XV.  36-38).  Still  more  clearly  does  the  same  conception 
appear  in  the  great  passage,  11.  Cor.  v.  1-8,  already 
quoted  at  length  in  Weizsacker's  very  accurate  transla- 
tion, to  which  reference  is  here  again  made  (compare 
also  Rom.  viii.  11). 

Paul's  conception  of  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  as  the 
principle  of  eternal  life  already  immanent  in  the  Christian 
explains,  then,  the  reason  why  he  came  to  view  the 
Christian's  entrance  into  future  glory  as  taking  place 
at  death :  it  explains  also  the  Pauline  doctrine  that  the 
resurrection  is  only  for  those  who  die  in  Christ.  Since 
the  resurrection  body  follows  from  the  immortal  new  life 
possessed  by  the  Christian,  as  the  corn  results  from  the 
seed,  it  is  clear  that  there  can  be  no  resurrection  for 
the  wicked,  seeing  that  they  do  not  possess  this  im- 
manent life. 

We  obtain  still  further  light  on  the  nature  of  the  gift 


FUTURE    SALVATION  97 

of  the  Spirit,  and  as  to  how  it  is  connected  with  future 
salvation,  when  we  turn  to  Paul's  alternative  statement 
for  the  same  thing.  The  Spirit  which  God  bestows  in 
salvation  is  none  other  than  the  Spirit  of  the  Risen 
Christ  (Rom.  viii.  2,  9);  the  immortal  life  which  He 
gives  is  the  immortal  life  of  the  Risen  Saviour.  Here 
the  way  is  opened  for  Paul's  great  thought  that  salvation 
is  union  with  Christ  in  His  resurrection  life.  (Compare 
n.  Cor.  iii.  18,  where  the  life  of  the  Christian  is 
represented  even  here  and  now  as  involving  a  progres- 
sive communication  of  the  immortal  life  of  the  Risen 
Lord.) 

Hence  is  explained  the  way  in  which,  in  the  final  stage 
of  his  eschatology,  Paul  comes  to  speak  of  the  future 
salvation.  He  speaks  of  it  as  simply  the  outward 
revelation  of  the  inner  life,  which  the  people  of  Christ 
possess  in  union  with  Him.  Their  life  is  now  hid 
with  Christ  in  God,  but  will  then  be  manifested  for  all 
to  see  (Col.  iii.  3,  4). 


§  6.  THE  CHANGED  RELATIONS  OF  FUTURE 
AND  PRESENT  SALVATION 

In   the  foregoing   account  of  the   Pauline   ideas   of 
present  salvation  we  started  out  to  show  the  connection 


98      MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

of  these  ideas  with  future  salvation,  i.e.  that  in  each 
case  Paul  had  in  view  the  anticipation  of  future  salva- 
tion in  some  aspect.  But  now  that  this  has  been  shown, 
something  else  has  been  shown  also.  We  see  a  reaction 
taking  place,  in  which,  instead  of  present  salvation 
being  regarded  as  an  anticipation  of  future,  future 
salvation  tends  to  be  regarded  as  the  completion  of 
present  salvation.  In  the  later  forms  of  Pauline 
doctrine,  this  point  of  view  becomes  more  and  more 
dominant.  We  owe  to  Paul,  in  fact,  the  formal  inception 
of  the  mode  of  thought  which  is  more  familiar  to  us, 
in  which  the  centre  of  gravity  is  shifted  from  the  idea 
of  future  to  that  of  present  salvation.  In  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  this  readjustment  is  materially,  but  not  formally, 
present.  The  great  new  and  original  elements  in  His 
teaching  lie  in  the  description  of  present  salvation ;  but 
the  conclusion  is  never  formally  drawn  that  future 
salvation  is  simply  the  completion  of  present  salvation. 
In  the  early  Church  of  Acts  we  observe  a  reaction 
towards  the  Judaistic  mode  of  thought,  in  which  future 
salvation  is  altogether  dominant.  Paul,  starting  indeed, 
in  Thessalonians,  on  the  ground  of  the  early  Church,  in 
his  developed  teaching  not  only  returns  to  the  material 
position  of  Jesus,  but  finally  draws  the  formal  con- 
clusions involved  in  it. 


SALVATION   AND    SIN  99 

§  7.  SALVATION   AND   SIN 

Paul's  further  descriptions  of  his  two  hemispheres  of 
present  salvation,  e.g.  reconciliation,  baptism  into  Christ's 
death,  bring  out  the  particular  reference  of  salvation  to 
sin.  In  the  Pauline  theology  this  reference  is  much 
more  worked  out  than  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and 
indeed  even  the  positive  or  prospective  aspects  of 
salvation,  such  as  justification  or  the  right  to  life,  and 
the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  or  the  earnest  of  immortality,  are 
also  defined  by  Paul  retrospectively,  and  brought  into 
close  relation  with  the  doctrine  of  sin.  It  is,  in  fact,  the 
antithesis  of  sin  and  salvation  which,  in  its  various 
forms,  gives  its  peculiar  stamp  to  Paul's  thought. 
When  Jesus  in  His  most  characteristic  teaching,  as,  e.g.^ 
in  the  Sermon  on.  the  Mount,  develops  the  positive  side 
of  salvation  for  the  most  part  absolutely,  and,  as  it  were, 
entirely  from  within,  Paul  in  his  specially  characteristic 
teaching,  as,  e.g.^  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  balances 
all  that  he  says  of  salvation  with  antithetic  teaching  on 
sin,  and,  what  is  more,  does  this  in  such  a  way  that  the 
doctrine  of  sin  comes  first  and  the  doctrine  of  salvation 
follows.  Once  more  we  recognise  in  Paul  the  precursor 
of  the  usual  method  of  Christian  theology,  whether 
Catholic  or  Protestant. 


loo    Man,  sin,  and  salvation 

We  turn,  then,  before  pursuing  the  PauHne  idea  of 
salvation  any  further,  to  the  doctrine  of  sin,  which  is  its 
great  complement,  in  which  also  Paul's  doctrine  of  man 
is  involved.  We  enter  upon  a  highly  characteristic 
and  important  phase  of  Pauline  thought.  Paul  is 
the  great  hamartiologist  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
has  developed  the  doctrine  of  sin  to  a  degree  else- 
where unknown  in  it. 

§  8.  MAN  AND   SIN 

By  sin  Paul  understands,  like  all  other  Biblical  writers, 
that  which  is  contrary  to  the  will  of  God.  He  sets  himself 
to  prove  that  sin  is  universal.  This  he  does  in  various 
ways.  The  first  proof  is  from  the  facts  of  experience, 
by  means  of  an  actual  survey  of  mankind  in  his  own  age 
(Rom.  i.  i8-ii.  28).  Jews  and  Gentiles  alike  are  thus 
shown  to  be  in  a  state  of  sin  (Rom.  iii.  9).  The  second 
proof  is  from  the  universality  of  death.  Since  Adam 
death  is  everywhere  in  the  world  (Rom.  v.  14) ;  but 
death,  as  Paul  affirms,  is  the  wages  of  sin  (Rom.  vi.  23). 
Hence  the  universality  of  death  proves  the  universality 
of  sin.  Compare  Rom.  v.  12:  "  death  passed  unto  all 
men,  for  that  all  sinned." 

Paul,  however,  goes  further  than  the  empirical  univer- 
sality of  sin.     Man  being  what  he  is,  sin  is  inevitable. 


MANANDSIN  loi 

Paul  gives  different  reasons  for  this.  The  first  reason 
he  gives  is  that  the  fall  of  Adam  brought  sin  into  the 
world.  The  passage  in  which  this  is  explained  (Rom. 
V.  1 2-21),  is  very  difficult  in  its  exegesis.  What  is  central, 
however,  for  Paul  in  the  fall  of  Adam,  and  claims  our 
attention  at  the  present  moment,  is  that  Adam's  fall 
opened  the  way  for  the  dominion  of  sin  over  mankind 
(compare  Rom.  v.  12:  "  through  one  man  sin  entered 
into  the  world  ").  Paul  conceives  sin  as  a  power,  almost 
personal.  Sin  reigns  (Rom.  v.  21);  compare  the  phrases 
"  sin  revived  "  (Rom.  vii.  9),  "  sin  slew  me  "  (Rom.  vh. 
11).  We  may  compare  the  tremendous  personification 
of  sin  by  Milton  in  "  Paradise  Lost." 

The  second  reason  which  Paul  gives  for  the  inevitable- 
ness  of  sin  is  quite  different  from  the  first.  It  is  not 
historical,  but  philosophical.  Paul  regards  sin  as 
inherent  in  the  flesh.  Man  is  carnal,  sold  under  sin 
(Rom.  vii.  14).  In'  him,  that  is  in  his  flesh,  dwells  no 
good  thing  (Rom.  vii.  18).  "This  theory,"  say  Wemle, 
"  is  neither  Jewish  nor  Greek,  but  an  original  creation 
of  Paul"  {^Die  Anfdnge  utiserer  Religions^  p.  139). 
There  is  a  starting-point  for  it  in  the  Old  Testament 
view,  which  we  have  seen  to  be  adopted  by  Jesus,  that 
the  flesh  of  man  is  weak,  frail,  and  perishable,  and  that 
man,  therefore,  in  so  far  as  he  is  flesh,  is  liable  to  sin. 


102     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Nearer  still  to  the  Pauline  doctrine  comes  the  later 
Jewish  doctrine  of  the  evil  impulse,  as  found  in  IV. 
Ezra  and  the  Talmud.  But  Paul  goes  beyond  the  Old 
Testament  view  in  that  he  thinks  of  the  flesh  as  not 
merely  weak  but  positively  evil  (compare  Gal.  v.  17  ; 
Rom.  viii.  7).  Paul  similarly  goes  beyond  the  later 
Jewish  view,  in  that  he  carries  his  assertion  of  the  inherent 
sinfulness  of  the  flesh  so  far  as  to  deny  the  free  will  of 
man,  who  is  in  complete  bondage  to  sin  in  the  flesh 
(Rom.  vii.  14;  see  further  Rom.  vi.  15-23).  In  these 
points  Paul  seems  to  approach  nearer  to  the  Greek  view, 
as  illustrated  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom  and  in  Philo, 
according  to  which  the  flesh  as  matter  is  absolutely  evil. 
And  in  fact  we  find  Paul  speaking  of  the  body  as  a 
burden  (II.  Cor.  v.  4);  just  as  Wisdom  ix.  15  says 
"  a  corruptible  body  weigheth  down  the  soul,"  and  as 
Philo  regards  the  body  as  the  prison  of  the  soul.  "  But 
Paul,  in  spite  of  all  this,  is  not  a  Greek"  (Wernle,  op.  cit.^ 
p.  140).  He  never  says  that  the  flesh  as  matter  is 
intrinsically  evil;  on  the  contrary,  the  body  can  be 
sanctified  and  made  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
(I.  Cor.  vi.  19),  and  its  members  instruments  of  righteous- 
ness (Rom.  vi.  13;  compare  further  Rom.  xii.  i).  In 
these  passages,  indeed,  Paul  uses  the  word  "  body,"  not 
the  word  * '  flesh  " ;  but  they  conclusively  prove  that  he 


MAN    AND    SIN  103 

did  not  regard  the  flesh  as  matter  as  intrinsically  evil ; 
for  if  he  had  done  so,  the  body  made  of  it  must  have 
been  incapable  of  sanctification.  In  one  passage,  if  it 
is  genuine,  viz.,  II.  Cor.  vi.  14-vii.  i,  Paul  even  speaks 
of  the  sanctification  oifiesh  and  spirit  (see  vii.  i).  This 
passage  is,  however,  considered  by  some  scholars  not  to 
be  Pauline.  In  any  case,  however,  from  the  evidence 
previously  cited  it  is  clear  that  Paul  does  not  agree  with 
the  Greeks,  any  more  than  he  does  with  the  Jews.  We 
have  the  important  result  that  Paul  does  not  teach  the 
sinfulness  of  the  flesh  as  matter^  and  so  leaves  the  way 
open  for  some  other  reason  of  its  sinfulness. 

Yet  Paul  does  come  very  near  to  the  Greek  view  after 
all.  While  he  thus  speaks  of  the  sanctification  of  the 
body,  and  possibly,  in  II.  Cor.  vii.  i,  of  the  sanctifica- 
tion of  the  flesh,  his  general  position  is  rather  that  the 
flesh  is  to  be  mortified  or  crucified  as  the  enemy  of 
the  soul. 

We  have  further  to  recognise  that  while  the  flesh  as 
matter,  or  the  body,  can  be  sanctified,  the  flesh  as  the 
seat  of  sin  apparently  remains  irredeemable  (compare 
Gal.  V.  17,  Rom.  vii.  18,  viii.  7).  The  flesh, 
therefore,  with  Paul,  comes  ultimately  to  mean  simply 
the  sum  of  the  evil  tendencies  in  human  nature.  In 
Paul's  doctrine  of  the  flesh  there  comes  to  view  the 

H 


I04     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

great  experimental  fact  of  the  dominance  of  a  tendency 
to  evil,  explain  it  how  we  will,  in  human  nature — a  fact 
which  the  great  philosopher  Kant  recognised  as  funda- 
mental, and  made  the  basis  of  his  whole  philosophy 
of  religion.  No  doubt  the  way  in  which  the  bodily 
impulses  are  the  occasion  of  sin  may  have  led  Paul 
to  give  to  this  sinful  principle  in  human  nature  the 
name  of  the  "flesh,"  a  word  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
at  any  rate  in  a  sense  approximating  to  the  Pauline, 
lay  ready  to  his  hand  in  the  Old  Testament.  Paul's 
whole  meaning,  however,  cannot  be  obtained  simply 
from  considerations  as  to  the  genesis  of  his  terminology. 
In  the  end  it  is  Paul's  own  experience  that  speaks  in 
his  doctrine,  as  Wernle  well  points  out,  and  a  new 
idea  comes  to  view  that  carries  us  beyond  the  natural 
meaning  of  the  word  used. 

We  have,  then,  in  Paul  two  theories  of  the  origin  of 
sin :  the  historical  theory,  which  derives  it  from  the  fall 
of  Adam,  and  the  philosophical,  or  perhaps  we  may 
now  call  it  the  experimental  theory,  which  derives  it 
from  the  inherent  sinfulness  of  the  flesh.  Is  there 
any  connection  between  the  two  theories?  As  is  well 
known,  they  have  been  combined  in  the  common 
ecclesiastical  doctrine,  that  with  the  fall  of  Adam  the 
nature  of  man  was  corrupted,  and  thus  the  "  flesh  "  in 


MAN    AND    SIN  105 

the  Pauline  sense  originated :  this  sinful  nature  passing 
from  Adam  to  his  descendants  by  natural  descent. 
Paul,  however,  does  not  affirm  so  much.  He  merely 
says  that  through  the  fall  of  Adam  sin  entered  into 
the  world  as  a  power  (Rom.  v.  12).  The  ordinary 
doctrine,  of  course,  gives  a  satisfactory  explanation 
of  this  statement.  There  is,  however,  the  alternative 
explanation  possible,  which  is  suggested  by  a  com- 
parison of  the  doctrine  of  IV.  Ezra,  according  to  which 
the  evil  impulse  existed  already  in  Adam  before  the 
Fall,  but  obtained  supremacy  by  means  of  it.  In  this 
case  the  "  flesh "  would  not  originate  through  the 
Fall;  though  actual  sin  would  do  so.  It  has  been 
argued  by  some  scholars  {e.g.  Sabatier)  that  this  is 
shown  to  be  Paul's  real  view  by  the  fact  that  in 
Rom.  vii.  11  he  distinctly  suggests  a  parallel  between 
the  origin  of  sin  in  the  descendants  of  Adam,  and 
in  Adam  himself.  The  parallel  appears  in  that  the 
original  process  by  which  sin  took  advantage  of  a 
positive  command  of  God  to  deceive  man,  and  thus 
bring  death  upon  him,  is  repeated  in  each  individual 
case.  As  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  liv.  19  says: 
"  Each  one  of  us  has  been  the  Adam  of  his  own 
soul." 

Holtzmann    in    his   Neutestamentliche    Theologie    (ii. 


io6     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

pp.  41-46)  leaves  the  question,  as  to  which  of  the 
two  rival  interpretations  of  Paul  is  right,  an  open  one, 
and  it  is  perhaps  best  here  to  follow  a  scholar  of  such 
great  experience,  particularly  as  either  explanation 
raises  as  many  difficulties  as  it  solves. 


§  9.  THE  LAW 

The  Pauline  doctrine  of  sin  is  bound  up  with  a 
doctrine  of  the  law,  which  is  specially  characteristic 
of  the  teaching  of  the  Apostle,  and  owes  its  origin  to 
the  particular  circumstances  of  his  conversion  and  his 
mission.  As  a  Pharisee,  Paul  had  himself  sought 
salvation  by  the  law,  before  he  found  it  in  Christ; 
hence  his  own  experience  naturally  leads  to  the  com- 
parison of  the  two  methods  of  salvation,  the  Pharisaic 
and  the  Christian.  Since  what,  as  a  Pharisee,  he  had 
especially  been  led  to  seek  by  the  lav/  was  justification, 
or  the  right  to  salvation,  it  is  in  regard  to  this  aspect 
of  the  subject  that  Paul  compares  the  two  methods. 
This  he  does  in  the  sharp  antithesis:  ""By  the  works 
of  the  law  shall  no  man  be  justified ;  in  Christ  alone 
man  is  justified"  (compare  Rom.  iii.  20-24  ;  Gal.  ii.  16). 
This  antithesis  in  some  of  Paul's  greatest  epistles  like 
Galatians  and  Romans  dominates  the  whole  argument 


THE    LAW  107 


In  framing  it  he  was  not  merely  expressing  his  own 
experience,  but  was  also  meeting  an  urgent  necessity 
of  his  apostolic  mission.  As  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles 
Paul  had  to  deal  with  the  opposition  of  Jews  and 
Jewish  Christians,  who  still  in  one  way  or  another 
looked  for  salvation  by  the  law,  and  who  denied  the 
standpoint  which  was  essential  to  Christianity  as  he 
understood  it,  viz.  that  salvation  depended  on  Christ 
and  on  nothing  else  whatever. 

Paul  means  by  the  law  in  the  first  place  the  law  of 
Moses.  This,  as  a  Pharisee,  he  had  taken  to  be  the 
perfect  expression  of  God's  will ;  and  still,  as  a  Christian, 
he  speaks  of  it  to  the  same  effect.  "  It  is  holy,  just  and 
good"  (Rom.  vii.  12).  There  is,  moreover,  in  man  an 
element  which  corresponds  to  the  law,  acknowledges  its 
authority,  and  desires  to  obey  it.  This  element  Paul 
calls  the  "  mind,"  as  in  Rom.  vii.  25 ;  or  else  he  names 
it  the  "inner  man,"  as  in  Rom.  vii.  22.  In  I.  Cor. 
ii.  II  the  name  "spirit"  also  seems  to  be  used  as  an 
alternative  for  the  mind ;  but  this  is  unusual  in  Paul. 
Recognition  of  the  law  of  Moses  can  of  course  take 
place  only  where  it  is  known.  Paul,  however,  finds  an 
analogue  of  it  in  "  the  law  written  in  the  heart,"  which 
is  observable  even  in  Gentiles,  who  have  no  knowledge 
of  the  law  of  Moses  (Rom.  ii.  153  heart  in  this  passage 


io8     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

seems  to  be  another  synonym  for  mind  or  inward  man). 
In  connection  with  this  doctrine  of  the  law  of  nature 
Paul  develops  a  doctrine  of  conscience,  which  is 
interesting  as  completing  his  idea  of  the  inner  man 
or  mind.  Upon  the  observance  or  non-observance  of 
the  "  law  in  the  heart "  follows  the  verdict  of  conscience, 
either  approving  or  disapproving  (Rom.  ii.  15).  Paul's 
"  conscience  "  is  not  a  legislative,  but  simply  a  judicial 
faculty.  He  seems  to  have  learned  the  name,  and 
probably  the  doctrine  also,  from  the  Stoics,  perhaps  at 
Tarsus,  which  was  the  seat  of  a  university. 

This  higher  nature,  or  "mind,"  then  exists  in  man 
along  with  the  lower  nature,  or  flesh.  When  the  law 
appeals  to  it,  the  mind  recognises  its  authority,  and 
desires  to  follow  its  direction.  But  it  is  thwarted  by 
the  flesh,  and  in  the  conflict  which  ensues  the  flesh 
proves  itself  the  stronger.  The  "  law  in  the  members  " 
overrides  the  law  of  the  mind  (Rom.  vii.  23).  The 
law,  holy,  just,  and  good  as  it  is,  is  therefore  unable 
to  save  man,  in  that  he  is  weak  through  the  flesh, 
or,  as  Paul  puts  it  with  pregnant  brevity,  in  that  the 
law  itself  is  weak  through  the  flesh  (Rom.  viii.  3).  So 
far  from  saving,  the  law  brings  nothing  but  condemna- 
tion, and  anticipates  in  man's  conscience  the  final 
judgment   of  God    (compare    Rom.   iii.    19;    see   also 


THE    LAW  109 


Rom.  ii.  15).  By  the  law,  in  fact,  all  men  are  shut  up 
under  sin,  and  so  under  wrath  ;  "  the  law  worketh 
wrath"  (Rom.  iv.  15).  Paul  indeed  admits  the  law, 
if  observed  would  save  (Gal.  iii.  12).  But  the  ad- 
mission is  really  only  dialectical.  It  is  understood 
throughout  that  no  one  can  observe  the  law  (compare 
Gal.  iii.  4). 

Paul  makes  a  distinction  in  some  places  between 
sin  and  transgression.  If  sin  is  opposition  to  the  will 
of  God,  transgression  is  conscious  opposition  to  it. 
Where  there  is  no  law,  there  can  be  no  transgression. 
Thus  between  Adam  and  Moses  sin  was  in  the  world  ; 
but  it  did  not  amount  to  transgression.  Hence  it 
was  not  imputed,  or  reckoned  in  the  heavenly  books 
(compare  Rom.  v.  13,  14).  During  this  period,  indeed, 
the  presence  of  sin  in  the  world  was  proved  by  the 
presence  of  death,  its  necessary  accompaniment ;  at  the 
same  time,  as  there  was  no  law  in  the  world,  this 
sin  was  not  of  the  nature  of  transgression  like  the  sin 
of  Adam,  which  was  a  direct  act  of  disobedience  to  a 
positive  commandment.  And  so  finally  in  this  period 
there  was  no  imputation  of  sin,  or  in  modern  phrase- 
ology, no  guilt. 

Paul  does  not  reconcile  this  point  of  view  with  what 
he  elsewhere  says  about  the  law  written  in  the  heart. 


no     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

which  exists  even  where  there  is  no  positive  command- 
ment. We  should  conclude,  on  the  basis  of  Rom.  ii. 
14,  15,  that  those  between  Adam  and  Moses  were  at 
least  under  this  form  of  law.  Further,  where  Paul  says 
"  the  wages  of  sin  is  death"  (vi.  23),  the  idea  of  sin  here 
includes  ill  desert  or  guilt.  Death  is  here  viewed  not 
as  the  natural  consequence  of  sin  merely,  but  as  its  just 
reward ;  so  that  the  idea  of  guilt  must  be  implied. 
Paul  is  therefore  not  completely  consistent  with  himself 
on  the  subject  now  before  us.  The  important  distinc- 
tion, however,  which  he  draws  in  Rom.  v.  14,  15  suggests 
the  principle  that  guilt  varies  with  the  amount  of  know- 
ledge, a  principle  which  we  have  already  found  enforced 
in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  Luke  xii.  47,  48. 


§   10.   THE   PUNISHMENT   OF  SIN 

We  return  to  the  passage,  "  The  wages  of  sin  is 
death."  Death  is  then  the  punishment  of  sin  ;  but  what 
exactly  does  Paul  mean  by  death  ?  In  the  first  place 
he  means  physical  death,  as  is  shown  by  Rom.  v.  12-14, 
especially  in  the  words,  "  through  one  man  sin  entered 
into  the  world,  and  death  through  sin."  Death,  like  sin, 
is  here  a  power  in  the  present  world  :  thus  it  is  physical 
death  which  first  and  foremost  appears  as  the  punish- 


THE    PUNISHMENT    OF    SIN     iii 

ment  of  sin.  But  Christians  also  are  subject  to  physical 
death.  Are  they,  then,  subject  to  the  punishment  of 
sin  ?  Paul  obviates  this  conclusion  by  regarding  physical 
death  for  the  Christian  as  simply  the  prelude  to  his 
resurrection.  It  is,  according  to  Paul's  earlier  view,  a 
sleep  till  the  day  of  resurrection  (I.  Thess.  iv.  15), 
or,  according  to  his  later  view,  the  immediate  gate  of 
access  into  the  presence  of  Christ  (Phil.  i.  2).  Thus  it 
becomes  clear  that  by  death  as  the  punishment  of  sin, 
Paul  means  not  only  physical  death,  but  the  destruction 
which  follows  it  (II.  Thess.  i.  9).  It  is  not  clear  whether 
Paul  thought  of  this  destruction  always  as  instantaneous, 
as  II.  Thess.  i.  9,  or  as  lengthened  out  while  the  wicked 
endure  the  penalties  of  their  particular  sins,  as  other 
passages  would  seem  to  suggest  (Rom.  ii.  8,  9 ;  II.  Cor. 
V.  10).  Perhaps  Paul  did  not  think  out  his  views  on 
this  subject  to  completion.  But  that  final  annihilation 
is  the  doom  of  the  wicked,  unless  somehow  they  are 
redeemed  even  after  the  death  of  the  body,  we  saw 
previously  to  be  involved  in  the  Pauline  view  of  the 
resurrection  as  resulting  from  the  immanent  Divine  life 
of  the  Christian. 

In  any  case  Paul  connects  the  punishment  of  sin  with 
the  already  mentioned  character  of  wrath  in  God.  God's 
wrath  even  now  impends  over  sinful  men  (Rom.  i.  18); 


112     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

but  crushes  them  finally  at  the  last  Judgment,  which 
is  therefore  spoken  of  as  "  the  wrath "  (Rom.  v.  9, 
xii.  19). 

§  II.  SOTERIOLOGICAL  PURPOSE  OF  THE  LAW 

The  question  of  the  law  is  not  wholly  exhausted,  how- 
ever, in  this  terrible  concatenation  with  sin,  death,  and 
wrath.  The  law  has,  in  fact,  in  the  providence  of  God 
an  indirect  relation  to  salvation.  This  appears  in  dif- 
ferent ways. 

1.  Condemnation  is  the  necessary  precursor  of  justi- 
fication through  Christ.  Here  Paul  has  in  view  the 
self-rehance  of  the  Pharisee,  who  counts  himself  able  to 
earn  salvation  for  himself  by  merit.  This  self-reliance 
must  be  broken  down  before  a  man  will  seek  justifica- 
tion through  Christ  (compare  Rom.  x.  3).  The  law, 
however,  itself  is  adapted  to  break  down  the  self-reliance 
of  the  man  who  seeks  salvation  by  means  of  it,  if  only 
he  takes  the  matter  seriously  enough.  It  effects  the 
destruction  of  self-reliance  in  such  a  case  through  its 
claim  to  absolute  fulfilment,  which  is  seen  to  be  impos- 
sible, as  soon  as  conscience  is  sufficiently  awake  in  a 
man  for  him  to  realise  the  full  amount  of  his  short- 
coming (compare  Gal.  ii.  16,  iii.  20;  Rom.  vii.  24). 

2.  Paul,  moreover,  assigned  to  the  law  a  soteriological 


PURPOSE    OF    THE    LAW         113 

purpose  in  that  in  the  actual  state  of  man  it  serves  to 
increase  sin  (Rom.  v.  20).  He  made  the  subtle  psycho- 
logical observation  that  the  knowledge  of  the  command- 
ment serves  only  to  provoke  the  flesh  to  enmity  against 
it.  As  soon  as  the  commandment  is  known,  the  flesh 
immediately  desires  what  is  prohibited  (Rom.  vii.  7,  8). 
This  stirring  up  and  increasing  of  sin,  however,  has  for 
its  end  the  bringing  of  the  spiritual  disease  of  man  to  a 
head,  in  order  that  he  may  more  fully  realise  his  need 
of  healing  (Rom.  v.  20,  21,  vii.  24,  25). 

3.  Paul  therefore  opens  out  finally  a  view  in  which 
the  stage  of  law  appears  merely  as  a  transitory  stage  in 
the  whole  Divine  purpose  of  salvation.  Here  he  has 
mainly  in  view  the  historical  sequence  of  God's  purpose 
with  Israel.  Salvation  was  promised  to  Israel  in  Abra- 
ham long  before  the  law  was  given  by  Moses  (Gal.  iii. 
15  ff.).  "The  law  came  in  beside,"  says  Paul,  "  that  the 
trespass  might  abound"  (Rom.  v.  20),  i.e.  that  sin 
might  be  brought  to  a  head  in  the  way  just  now  explained. 
From  this  view  of  the  transitory  significance  of  the  law 
follows  the  further  view  of  it,  in  which  Paul  attributes 
to  it  a  less  than  Divine  origin.  The  law,  he  says,  "was 
ordained  through  angels  by  the  hand  of  a  mediator " 
(Gal.  iii.  19).  Paul  does  not  reconcile  this  view,  how- 
ever, with  the  other  we  have  previously  discussed,  in 


114     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

which  the  law  appears  as  the  direct  expression  of  the 
Divine  will  and  nature,  holy,  just  and  good.  But  it  is 
evident  that  we  have  in  Gal.  iii.  19  an  important  sug- 
gestion as  to  how  the  Jewish  element  in  Paulinism  must 
be  ultimately  related  to  the  Christian,  and  as  to  how  the 
legal  may  be  distinguished  from  the  moral  view  of  the 
law.  And  although  Paul,  in  his  actual  writings,  deals  in 
the  first  place  only  with  the  relation  of  the  Jewish  law 
to  Christianity,  it  is  evident  that  what  he  says  applies 
to  all  legalism  as  contrasted  with  the  Christian  view 
of  things. 

§  12.  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  PRESENT  SALVATION 
VIEWED  IN  REFERENCE  TO  SIN:  THE 
JUSTIFICATION   OF  THE  SINNER 

We  now  return,  after  our  discussion  of  the  doctrines 
of  sin  and  the  law,  to  take  up  once  more  the  Pauline 
doctrines  of  salvation,  and  to  develop  them  more  fully. 
In  their  complete  form  they  have  continual  reference  to 
the  doctrines  of  sin  and  the  law.  In  fact  it  is  the  nature 
of  the  peculiar  Pauline  view  that  it  is  very  difficult  to 
separate  accurately  between  the  prospective  and  retro- 
spective aspects  of  salvation.  What  could  be  done, 
therefore,  before  the  doctrines  of  sin  and  the  law  had 
been  discussed,  was  hardly  more  than  to  mark  out  the 
two  hemispheres  of  the  Pauline  doctrine  of  present  salva- 


PRESENT    SALVATION  115 

tion,  and  show  their  eschatological  connections.  The 
fundamental  doctrine  of  the  mediation  of  salvation 
through  Christ  has,  however,  been  left  to  be  discussed 
in  the  present  connection. 

We  saw  that  the  Pauline  view  of  justification  was 
fundamentally  opposed  to  that  of  the  Pharisees.  Where 
they  sought  to  establish  a  salvation  by  merit  (Rom. 
X.  3),  Paul  teaches  that  the  right  to  salvation  is  the 
free  gift  of  God,  or  is  accorded  by  His  grace.  Grace 
and  vv-orks  are  mutually  exclusive  (Rom.  iii.  27,  iv.  4). 

Grace,  however,  in  Paul's  thought  is  not  merely  op- 
posed to  works  and  merit  :  it  is  also  opposed  to  sin. 
The  transition  follows  immediately  from  the  idea  of  the 
search  for  salvation  by  the  performance  of  the  law  to 
the  idea  of  man's  inability  to  perform  the  law  because 
of  his  sinfulness,  and  his  corresponding  condemnation 
by  the  law.  In  opposition  to  this  condemnation  by  the 
law  stands  justification  by  grace.  Here  the  Pauline 
idea  of  justification  reaches  its  most  remarkable  phase, 
finding  expression  in  the  paradox  of  Rom.  iv.  5,  which 
speaks  of  God  as  "  Him  that  justifieth  the  ungodly." 
The  paradox  is  designed,  as  a  reference  to  the  Old 
Testament  shows,  where  the  justification  of  the  wicked 
is  strongly  reprobated  (compare  Exod.  xxiii.  7 ;  Deut. 
XXV.  I ;  Prov.  xvii.  15  ;  Isa.  v.  23).    Paul's  paradox  points 


ii6     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

to  the  fact  that  in  grace  the  law  is  transcended  and 
done  away.  The  state  of  justification  is,  in  fact,  one  of 
freedom  from  the  law  (Rom.  vi.  14). 

This  Pauline  paradox  has  always  been  an  offence  to 
some  ever  since  his  own  time  (Rom.  iii.  8,  vi.  i). 
It  seems  as  though  it  made  God  act  unethically  in 
passing  a  sentence,  which  is  not  according  to  the 
facts.  This  sentence,  however,  is  only  unethical  if 
forgiveness  is  unethical;  for  justification,  in  its  retro- 
spective aspect,  is  only  the  Pauline  way  of  expressing 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  (compare  Rom.  iv.  7,  where 
Paul  quotes  from  Ps.  xxxii.  i  the  verse,  "  Blessed  are 
they  whose  iniquities  are  forgiven,  and  whose  sin  is 
covered.  Blessed  is  the  man  to  whom  God  will  not 
reckon  sin ").  The  whole  point  of  the  quotation  lies 
in  the  identification  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  spoken 
of  by  the  psalmist  with  justification  (compare  Rom. 
iv.  5,  6). 

Still  fuller  light  upon  the  Pauline  idea  of  justifi- 
cation, however,  is  given  by  the  consideration  of  a  fresh 
alternative  idea,  viz.  that  of  reconciliation  (in  II.  Cor. 
V.  19  reconciliation  =  the  non-imputation  of  sins,  i.e. 
justification).  This  new  idea  subsumes  under  another 
figure  both  the  positive  and  negative  aspects  of  justi- 
fication.     The    Pauline   conception    of    reconciliation, 


PRESENT    SALVATION  117 

while  negatively  equivalent  to  the  forgiveness  of  sins, 
or  the  laying  aside  of  God's  wrath  against  the  sinner, 
is  also  positively  the  bringing  of  the  sinner  into  com- 
munion with  God  by  removal  of  the  sinner's  enmity 
towards  Him  (compare  II.  Cor.  v.  19 :  "  God  was  in 
Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself"). 

We  thus  see  that  the  Pauline  justification  is  no  mere 
formal  sentence  of  acquittal,  pronounced  upon  a 
person  who  is  left  unchanged  in  spirit.  Rather  does 
God,  in  justifying  the  sinner,  also  reconcile  him  to  Him- 
self; or,  to  make  use  of  the  alternative  phraseology 
of  adoption,  God,  in  according  to  the  sinner  the  right 
of  sonship  (Gal.  iv.  2;  Rom.  viii.  17),  also  imparts  the 
spirit  of  sonship  (Gal.  iv.  6 ;  Rom.  viii.  14,  15). 

All  these  things  Paul  sums  up  by  saying  that  justifi- 
cation is  not  only  of  grace,  but  also  by  faith,  in  which 
statement  his  doctrine  of  justification  finally  receives 
its  characteristic  expression  and  completion.  Faith  in 
Paul's  sense  is,  above  all,  trust — trust  in  God's  grace ; 
and  in  this  trust  the  blessedness  of  present  salvation 
in  communion  with  God  is  progressively  realised  (com- 
pare Rom,  V.  i-ii,  viii.  31-39).  Here  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  faith  is  not  a  work  of  man,  which  can 
be  set  in  opposition  to  the  works  of  the  law.  It  is  not 
so  much,  as  it  is  after  called,  the  condition  of  salvation, 


ii8     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

as  the  subjective  realisation  of  salvation.  The  proper 
alternative  to  justification  by  works  is  justification  by 
grace  (Rom.  iii.  24).  Justification  by  faith  (Rom.  v.  i) 
is  simply  a  pregnant  expression  describing  the  mode 
of  justification  by  grace. 


§  13.  JESUS   CHRIST :  HIS   DEATH   AND 
RESURRECTION 

How  does  the  Divine  grace  justify  man  by  faith? 
The  Pauline  answer  is,  By  the  redemption  that  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  (Rom.  iii.  24).  There  Paul  repeats  a 
fundamental  principle  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  namely, 
that  salvation  is  mediated  personally  through  Him; 
but  he  makes  the  principle  more  explicit,  and  moves  it 
right  into  the  centre  of  the  whole  view.  That  the 
love  of  God  is  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  is  the  absolute 
foundation  principle  of  Pauline  theology.  As  we  have 
seen,  the  grace  of  the  one  is  the  grace  of  the  other 
(Rom.  V.  15).  The  love  of  God  is  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord  (Rom.  viii.  35-39).  So  faith  in  God  and 
faith  in  Christ  are  one  and  the  same  (Rom.  iii.  22, 
iv.  24).  Justification  and  reconciliation,  therefore,  take 
place  through  Christ. 

In  particular,  Paul  connects  justification  and  recon- 


JESUS    CHRIST  119 

ciliation  with  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ, 
especially  with  the  former.  We  are  justified  by  Christ's 
blood  (Rom.  v.  8),  reconciled  through  His  death  (Rom. 
V.  10).  Paul,  in  fact,  represents  the  death  of  Christ 
as  an  expiatory  sacrifice  (Rom.  iii.  25),  ordained  by 
God  to  show  at  once  His  judgment  upon  sin,  and  His 
grace  towards  sinners  (H.  Cor.  v.  21 ;  Rom.  iii.  25). 
On  the  one  hand  the  righteousness  which  would  other- 
wise have  been  shown  in  the  punishment  of  sin  is 
demonstrated  in  the  Cross  (Rom.  iii.  25).  This  takes 
place  in  that  Christ  bears  the  curse  of  the  law  for  us, 
viz.  death  (Gal.  iii.  13);  or,  as  Paul  says  in  II.  Cor. 
V.  21,  God  makes  Him  to  be  sin  for  us.  On  the  other 
hand,  God's  grace  towards  sinners  is  shown  in  that, 
contrary  to  the  ordinary  forms  of  religion,  in  which 
men  by  sacrifice  seek  to  propitiate  their  gods,  in  the 
case  of  Christ's  sacrifice,  God  Himself  sets  forth  the 
propitiation,  and  gives  Christ  to  die  for  us  (Rom.  iii. 
25,  V.  8). 

As  effective  in  the  justification  and  reconciliation  of 
sinners,  Paul  calls  the  death  of  Christ  their  redemption 
(Rom.  iii.  24).  It  delivers  from  the  curse  or  condem- 
nation of  the  law  (Gal.  iii.  13),  which  is  the  anticipation 
of  the  Divine  judgment;  and  this  deliverance  takes 
place  by  the  payment  of  a  price  (I.  Cor.  vi.  20).     It  is 


I20     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

evident,  therefore,  that  Paul  has  in  view  the  idea  of 
expiatory  sacrifice,  which  we  have  already  observed  in 
the  books  of  Maccabees.  Yet  that  he  has  not  a  purely 
objective  and  external  transaction  in  view,  is  clear  from 
many  suggestive  touches  in  his  treatment  of  the  subject. 
Above  all,  Paul  never  treats  of  the  expiatory  sacrifice 
of  Christ  without  either  the  implication  or  the  direct 
mention  of  the  subjective  realisation  of  salvation  as 
faith,  in  close  connection  with  it.  This  connection  with 
faith  is  implied  in  such  phrases  as  "  for  me "  (Gal.  ii. 
20),  "for  us"  (Rom.  v.  8;  II.  Cor.  v.  21).  They  recog- 
nise that  the  purpose  of  Christ  dying,  or  of  God  in 
giving  Him  to  die,  was  not  merely  to  make  satisfaction 
to  a  broken  law,  but  to  win  grateful  hearts  to  trust  and 
love.  The  objective  connections  of  Christ's  death,  that 
is,  are  never  separated  in  Pauline  thought  from  its  sub- 
jective connections  in  Christian  experience.  In  other 
passages  we  have  direct  mention  of  faith  in  the 
enunciation  of  the  doctrine  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ, 
e.g.  in  Rom.  iii.  24,  where,  even  in  expressly  stating 
the  connection  between  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  and  the 
condemnation  of  sin,  Paul  emphasises  at  the  outset 
the  connection  of  Christ's  sacrifice  with  faith.  Observe 
the  close  connection  of  the  words,  "  whom  God  set 
forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  by  His  blood," 


JESUS    CHRIST 


and  notice  how  the  idea  of  faith  is  introduced  into 
the  very  middle  of  the  enunciation  of  the  idea  of  ex- 
piatory sacrifice,  actually  separating  the  words  "  propitia- 
tion "  and  "  by  His  blood  "  from  one  another. 

The  explanation  of  all  this  is  found,  when  we  observe 
that  Paul  regards  the  death  of  Christ  not  as  exclusive 
but  as  inclusive  of  the  death  of  the  Christian  (compare 
II.  Cor.  iii.  14 :  "  we  thus  judge,  that  one  died  for  all, 
therefore  all  died  "). 

Nor  is  it  only  Christ's  death  that  is  inclusive  of  the 
death  of  His  people,  but  also  His  resurrection  includes 
their  resurrection.  Thus  Paul  says  (Rom.  iv.  24)  that 
Christ  was  "  raised  for  our  justification."  In  other  words, 
as  Christ's  death  was  the  expiation  for  our  sin  in  that 
it  carried  our  deaths  along  with  it,  so  also  Christ's 
resurrection,  or  entrance  on  the  state  of  heavenly  blessed- 
ness, in  that  it  includes  the  same  entrance  on  heavenly 
blessedness  for  His  people,  is  their  justification  or  ad- 
mission to  full  communion  with  God,  who  recognises 
their  right  to  communion  with  Him  by  admitting  them 
into  His  glorious  kingdom. 

The  connection  of  justification  in  this  way  with  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  it  may  be  observed,  finally  makes 
impossible  the  identification  of  Paul's  view  of  the  atone- 
ment with  the  transactional  view,  according  to  which 


122     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

the  atonement  consists  simply  in  the  payment  of  the 
debt  of  sin  by  Christ's  death.  Compare  Rom.  x.  9, 
where  salvation  is  said  to  turn  on  a  belief  in  Christ's 
resurrection.  Above  all,  however,  see  I.  Cor.  xv.  14, 
where  it  is  asserted  that  if  Christ  be  not  raised  from 
the  dead  we  are  yet  in  our  sins.  This  last  passage 
makes  it  quite  clear  that  the  Pauline  view  of  the  atone- 
ment is  not  simply  that  of  the  payment  of  the  debt 
of  sin  by  the  death  of  Christ ;  for  this  might  take  place 
without  the  resurrection,  while  Paul  here  says  that  apart 
from  the  resurrection  there  is  no  salvation.  However 
difficult,  therefore,  it  may  be  to  reconcile  in  one  view 
all  that  Paul  says  of  the  atonement,  our  work  here  is, 
as  historical  theologians,  simply  to  observe  the  richness 
and  manifoldness  of  his  teaching,  and  to  resist  all 
premature  attempts  at  its  simplification.  It  is  clear, 
on  the  one  hand,  that  Paul  held  that  Christ's  death  was 
an  expiation  for  sin;  but,  on  the  other,  that  in  His 
death  and  resurrection  He  was  inclusive  of  His  people, 
and  that  His  resurrection  was  equally  necessary  with 
His  death  to  our  justification. 

The  reason,  of  course,  for  the  inclusiveness  of  Christ 
in  His  death  and  resurrection  is  that  His  people  are 
united  to  Him  by  faith  (compare  Gal.  ii.  20,  where 
crucifixion  with  Christ  and  new  life  in  Him  are  equated 


UNION    WITH    CHRIST  123 

to  a  life  of  faith  in  Him).  This  thought,  however, 
carries  us  over  to  the  second  hemisphere  of  the 
Pauline  conception  of  present  salvation,  to  which  the 
ideas,  which  we  have  just  been  considering,  form  a 
bridge,  showing  that  the  two  hemispheres  are  not 
really  separate  from  one  another. 


§  14.  UNION  WITH  CHRIST  VIEWED  IN 
REFERENCE   TO   SIN 

The  subject  of  union  with  Christ  has  already  been 
treated  of  in  its  prospective  aspect,  and  the  identity 
of  the  various  forms  in  which  Paul  speaks  of  it  has 
been  demonstraced.  It  remains  now  to  consider  the 
way  in  which  those  ideas,  viz.  those  of  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit  and  of  the  union  of  the  believer  with  Christ, 
are  developed  in  their  retrospective  aspect,  i.e.  with 
relation  to  the  idea  of  sin.  By  means  of  them  Paul 
finds  place  for  an  idea  of  salvation,  not  only  from  the 
guilt  but  from  the  power  of  sin. 

It  was  seen  that  his  doctrine  of  man  left  us  with 
a  fatal  subjugation  of  his  higher  nature  to  his  lower 
nature,  his  mind  or  inner  man  approving  and  desiring 
to  obey  the  law  of  God,  but  his  flesh  rebelling  and 
proving  itself  the  victor.     Paul  now  regards  the  Spirit, 


124     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

bestowed  on  the  Christian  as  the  earnest  of  his  inherit- 
ance, as  an  ethical  power,  which  controverts  the  flesh, 
and  is  able  to  defeat  it.  That  Paul  was  able  thus  to 
conceive  the  Spirit  as  an  ethical  power  was  due  to 
the  way  in  which  he  identified  the  Spirit  of  God  and 
the  Spirit  of  Christ.  In  opposition  to  the  non-ethical 
view  of  the  Spirit,  according  to  which  the  Spirit  is 
simply  supernatural  power,  which,  found  in  the  Old 
Testament,  was  prevalent  in  the  early  Church,  and 
which  evaluated  especially  the  abnormal  as  the  spiritual, 
and  also  regarded  the  visitations  of  the  Spirit  as 
temporary  and  occasional,  Paul  set  the  view  according 
to  which  the  Spirit  was  the  abiding  power  of  Christian 
character,  whose  fruits  were  the  virtues,  the  chief  of 
which  was  love.  This  is  one  of  Paul's  greatest  achieve- 
ments, and  can  only  be  rightly  estimated  by  a  per- 
ception of  the  contrast  between  his  view  and  the  one 
he  aimed  to  supersede.  For  an  illustration  of  the 
older  view,  therefore,  compare  Judges  xv.  14.  For  its 
prevalence  in  the  early  Church  see  I.  Cor.  xii.  1-3, 
xiv.  1-40,  whence  it  is  evident  that  the  Corinthians 
viewed  as  spiritual  rather  abnormal  manifestations  like 
the  gift  of  tongues,  or  speech  unintelligible  to  the 
hearers,  than  prophecy  or  intelligible  speech  directed 
to  the  edification  of  the  Church,  and  that  they  even 


UNION    WITH    CHRIST  125 

seem  to  have  gone  so  far  ?  3  to  think  that  the  man 
under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  might  invert  all  the 
ordinary  moral  and  spiritual  distinctions,  so  that,  for 
instance,  one  in  the  Spirit  might  say,  "Jesus  is  ana- 
thema "  (I.  Cor.  xii.  3).  For  Paul's  view  see  I.  Cor.  xii.- 
xiv.,  especially  I.  Cor.  xiii.  13;  compare  Gal.  v.  22. 

Equally  clearly  is  the  idea  of  salvation  as  an  ethical 
power  brought  to  view  under  the  notion  of  union  with 
Christ  in  Rom.  vi.  i-vii.  6.  Here  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Christ  are  given  a  completely  ethical 
meaning,  which  is  brought  out  under  many  varied 
and  changing  figures.  His  death  was  a  death  to  sin — 
terminating,  in  fact,  the  relations  between  Him  and 
sin  altogether.  See  Rom.  vi.  7  :  "he  that  is  dead  is 
justified  from  sin,"  i.e.  sin  has  no  longer  any  claims 
upon  him :  the  principle  is  applied  to  Christ.  Again, 
Christ's  death  being  a  resurrection  to  the  heavenly 
life  with  God  (which  is  one  of  righteousne.  ^ ;  compare 
Matt.  V.  6),  is  a  resurrection  to  God  and  rig  .teousness 
(see  Rom.  vi.  10).  But  in  the  death  and  resurrection 
of  Christ  we  have  seen  that  all  Christians  share.  In 
Rom.  vi.  3-6,  Paul  shows  this  by  means  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  baptism,  and  goes  on  to  argue  in  the  following 
verses  that  Christ's  people  are,  or  should  be,  in  conse- 
quence of  their  union  with  Him,  dead  to  sin  and  alive 


126     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

to  righteousness,  thus  exhibiting  salvation  as  a  moral 
power.  "Reckon  yourselves,"  he  says,  "to  be  dead 
unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God  in  Christ  Jesus" 
(Rom.  vi.  4). 

The  "are  or  should  be"  mentioned  just  now  prepares 
the  way  for  us  to  speak  of  the  subjective  realisation  of 
this  aspect  of  salvation.  Just  as  justification  is  realised 
in  faith  or  trust,  so  also  is  the  new  life  of  the  Spirit 
received  by  faith  (Gal.  ii.  20,  iii.  2)  or  baptism  (Rom.  vi. 
3,  4;  I.  Cor.  xii.  13).  To  baptism,  in  fact,  Paul  seems 
in  this  connection  to  attach  independent  value ;  and  it 
is  probable  that  to  him  it  was  more  than  a  mere  symbol 
of  faith — that,  in  fact,  he  thought  of  it  as  actually  convey- 
ing the  gift  of  the  Spirit  and  as  actually  uniting  with 
Christ.  This  may  to  us  perhaps  seem  inconsistent  with 
his  view  that  the  Spirit  is  received  by  faith,  and  with  the 
all-important  position  which  he  gives  to  faith  in  con- 
nection with  justification.  But  it  would  seem  probable 
that  Paul  never  put  to  himself  the  question,  so  natural 
to  us.  What  is  the  saving  worth  of  faith  apart  from 
baptism  ?  To  him  the  one  was  the  outer  and  the  other 
the  inner  side  of  the  same  transaction,  and  hence  he 
speaks  of  either  as  conveying  the  Spirit. 

The  new  life,  then,  is  appropriated  by  faith  or  in 
baptism.     Whether,  however,  it  is  represented  as  the  gift 


UNION    WITH    CHRIST  127 

of  the  Spirit  or  as  union  with  Christ,  Paul  thinks  of  it  as 
reahsed  in  the  moral  life  of  obedience.  "  If  we  live  by 
the  spirit,"  he  says,  *'by  the  Spirit  let  us  also  walk" 
(Gal.  V.  25).  Or  again  to  those  united  with  Christ  he 
says,  "Present  yourselves  unto  God,  as  alive  from  the 
dead,  and  your  members  as  instruments  of  righteous- 
ness" (Rom.  vi.  13).  In  these  passages  the  description 
of  what  Christians  "  are  "  passes  over  immediately  into 
the  thought  of  what  they  *'  should  be,"  to  go  back  to  the 
phraseology  precisely  made  use  of.  Or,  in  philosophical 
language,  the  categorical  affirmation  immediately  resolves 
itself  into  the  categorical  imperative.  This  is  simply 
the  result  of  the  fact  that  Paul  conceives  the  new  life  as 
altogether  ethical,  and  an  ethical  life  can  never  be 
realised  apart  from  the  obedience  of  the  will. 

This  obedience  of  the  will  is,  be  it  now  observed, 
essentially  the  same  attitude  of  soul  as  that  spoken  of 
in  a  different  connection  as  faith.  Faith  and  obedience 
are  simply  this  one  attitude  of  soul  carried  out  in  the 
different  spheres  of  religion  and  ethics.  The  root  of 
both  is  the  surrender  of  the  will  to  God,  and  both  are 
expressed  in  the  idea  of  sonship  given  by  Jesus.  The 
difference,  in  fact,  between  Jesus  and  Paul  is  that  Paul 
much  more  than  Jesus  distinguishes  the  domains  of 
religion  and  ethics,  thus  objectively  dividing  his  idea 


128     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

of  salvation  into  the  two  hemispheres  already  considered, 
and  subjectively  dividing  his  method  of  the  realisation 
of  salvation  into  faith  and  obedience.  Such  a  phrase, 
however,  as  that  of  the  obedience  of  faith  (Rom.  i.  5) 
serves  to  illustrate  the  unity  of  the  principle,  whose 
operation  is  thus  analytically  explained. 


§   15.   REACTION   OF   THE   ETHICAL   INTEREST 
UPON  THE  IDEA  OF  JUSTIFICATION 

Paul's  ordinary  vie\v  of  justification  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
that  in  the  present  justification  is  the  ground  of  a  sure 
hope  of  final  salvation.  At  the  same  time,  in  the  moral 
interest,  he  holds  strongly  to  the  idea  of  a  judgment 
according  to  works  at  the  last  day,  as  in  the  study 
of  his  eschatology  we  have  already  observed  (see  again 
Rom.  ii.  6  ;  Gal.  vi.  7  ;  II.  Cor.  v.  16,  xi.  15).  He  con- 
stantly, in  fact,  urges  upon  Christians  the  necessity  of 
being  able  to  meet  this  judgment. 

The  two  notions  of  present  justification  and  a  final 
judgment  according  to  works  may  be  reconciled  by 
means  of  the  conception  of  good  works  as  the  fruit  of 
the  Spirit  (Gal.  v.  23).  Where  justification  is,  there  is 
also  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  and  therefore  also  good  works. 
Thus  the  verdict   of  present  justification  and    of  the 


THE    PAULINE    SOTERIOLOGY      129 

future  judgment  must  coincide.  This  view  is  virtually 
implied  in  Rom.  v.  9,  10.  Having  been  justified  in 
Christ's  bloodj  we  shall  be  saved  fi*om  the  wrath,  i.e.  the 
wrath  of  God  at  the  last  Judgment,  by  His  life,  or  by 
union  with  Him.  This  can  only  be  because  union  with 
Christ  results  in  the  fruit  of  good  works  required  for 
salvation  at  the  last  Judgment. 

Sometimes,  however,  the  ethical  interest  so  pre- 
dominates that  Paul  even  comes  to  represent  future 
salvation  as  conditional  on  perseverance  in  faith  and 
obedience.  Compare  Rom.  viii.  17,  still  more  I.  Cor. 
ix.  24-27,  where  Paul  speaks  even  of  his  own  final 
salvation  as  depending  on  his  perseverance.  Above 
all,  see  Phil.  iii.  8-14,  where  Paul  speaks  of  the 
righteousness  of  justification  through  faith  in  Christ 
as  requiring  to  be  realised  through  union  with  Christ 
in  His  death  and  resurrection,  and  makes  the  attain- 
ment of  the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  i.e.  final  salva- 
tion, dependent  upon  this  realisation. 

§  16.  INDIVIDUALISM   OF  THE  PAULINE 
SOTERIOLOGY 

With  the  general  abandonment  of  the  idea  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  reference  to  present  salvation  in 
favour  of  the  conceptions  of  justification,  reconciliation. 


I30     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

adoption,  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  the  individual  character 
of  salvation  comes  strongly  to  the  front  in  the  teach- 
ing of  Paul.  The  social  element  in  salvation  is,  how- 
ever, constantly  implied  in  the  "  we,"  "  us,"  and  "  our," 
which  Paul  continually  uses  in  speaking  of  these  sub- 
jects (Rom.  iv.  25,  V.  I,  8,  viii.  15,  16,  31-39);  while 
in  I.  Cor.  xii.  13  Paul  emphasises  the  oneness  of  the 
Spirit  which  all  Christians  have  received,  by  means  of 
which  they  are  all  united  into  one  body.  It  is  by 
means  of  this  figure  of  the  one  body  that  Paul  especially 
teaches  the  same  truth  of  the  social  character  of  sal- 
vation which  Jesus  teaches  through  the  idea  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  It  is  led  up  to  not  only,  as  in  I.  Cor. 
xii.  13,  by  the  conception  of  salvation  as  the  reception  of 
the  Spirit,  but  still  more  by  the  notion  of  it  as  union  with 
Christ.  Those  who  are  one  with  Christ  are  essentially 
one  with  one  another ;  they  are  a  body  of  which  He  is 
the  head  and  they  are  the  members.  The  complete 
synthesis  of  the  salvation  of  the  community  and  of 
the  individual,  which  we  found  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  is  then  not  lost  by  Paul,  though  brought  to 
view  in  a  somewhat  different  way. 


PRESENT    SALVATION  131 

§  17.  THE   DOCTRINE  OF  PRESENT  SALVATION 
IN  COLOSSIANS  AND  EPHESIANS 

In  these  epistles  the  ideas  of  present  salvation,  which 
we  have  just  been  studying  in  connection  with  the 
great  central  group  of  Paul's  epistles,  receive  consider- 
able modification,  though  certainly  along  lines  not 
altogether  unprepared  for.  We  note,  first  of  all,  that 
the  great  controversial  name  "justification,"  by  which 
Paul  defines  his  view  of  salvation  regarded  as  the 
right  to  communion  with  God  in  opposition  to  the 
Pharisaic  doctrine,  disappears  from  Colossians  and 
Ephesians ;  and  along  with  it  also  almost  entirely  dis- 
appears the  doctrine  of  the  law  and  its  inability  to 
save.  We  still  find,  however,  the  descriptions  of  sal- 
vation as  reconciliation  (Col.  i.  21)  and  as  adoption 
(Eph.  i.  5).  Paul  also  speaks  in  the  language  of  direct 
experience  of  access  to  God,  just  as  in  Rom.  v.  2  (see 
Eph.  ii.  18).  Twice  this  aspect  of  salvation  is  described 
as  the  forgiveness  of  sins  (Eph.  i.  7  ;  Col.  i.  14);  which 
however,  it  will  be  remembered,  we  saw  from  Rom.  iv. 
5-7  was  the  equivalent  of  justification  in  Paul's  mind 
in  the  central  stage  of  his  thought.  In  another  place 
(Col.  i.  13)  the  same  aspect  of  salvation  is  spoken 
of  as  a  translation  out  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness  into 


132     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

the  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  God's  love ;  and  here  is 
the  nearest  equivalent  to  the  description  of  salvation 
in  the  central  epistles  as  freedom  from  the  law.  For 
Colossians  completes  that  separation  between  the  law 
and  God,  which  in  spite  of  the  doctrine  of  Rom.  vii. 
that  the  law  is  holy,  just  and  good,  we  found  begun 
in  Gal.  iii.  14,  where  it  is  said  that  the  law  was  given 
by  angels ;  so  that  it  appears  as  representing  God  not 
directly,  but  through  the  medium  of  inferior  powers. 
In  Col.  ii.  14,  15,  we  find  the  power  behind  the  law 
viewed  not  merely  as  that  of  angels,  but  of  hostile 
angels,  who  hold  in  the  law  a  bond  against  sinful 
humanity,  which  Christ  by  His  death,  which  satisfies 
the  claim  of  the  law,  cancels,  and  thus  redeems  man- 
kind from  the  power  of  these  hostile  angels,  over 
whom  He  thereby  triumphs.  Here,  then,  we  find  the 
meaning  of  the  translation  out  of  the  power  of  dark- 
ness into  the  kingdom  of  Christ  spoken  of  in  Col.  i.  13. 
It  means  the  deliverance  of  believers  from  the  power 
of  the  hostile  angels  of  the  law  into  a  state  of  salvation, 
here  described,  with  a  natural  modification  of  the 
original  name  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  the  kingdom 
of  Christ. 

As  regards  the  second  Pauline  aspect  of  salvation, 
we  find  in  Colossians  and  Ephesians  the  frequent  recog- 


PRESENT    SALVATION  133 

nition  of  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  The  earnest  of  the 
Spirit  (Eph.  i.  14) — we  saw  that  this  phrase  exactly 
sums  up  Paul's  characteristic  view  of  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit — is  the  common  possession  of  Christians.  We 
have  also  descriptions  of  salvation  as  a  quickening 
together  with  Christ  (Eph.  ii.  5),  as  a  burial  with  Christ 
and  resurrection  with  Him  (Col.  ii.  12,  iii.  i),  and  again 
as  Christ  in  us  (Col.  i.  27;  Eph.  iii.  17),  which  remind 
us  of  the  central  epistles.  We  have  also  fresh  descrip- 
tion of  salvation  as  perfection  (Col.  ii.  10)  or  as  puri- 
fication (Eph.  V.  20),  which  connect  our  epistles  with 
Hebrews  and  the  Johannine  writings  rather  than  with 
the  Pauline  central  epistles.  Pfleiderer  has  endeavoured 
to  show  in  his  "  Paulinism,"  Eng.  trans.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  95  ff., 
162  ff.,  that  all  these  descriptions,  however,  apparently 
corresponding  to  the  second  aspect  of  salvation  in 
Paul's  central  doctrine,  excepting  only  the  idea  of  the 
gift  of  the  Spirit,  are  in  reality  used  in  a  religious 
rather  than  in  a  moral  sense,  i.e.,  to  describe  the 
necessary  preparation  for  admission  to  communion 
with  God.  In  this  he  tries  to  show  an  agreement 
of  Colossians  and  Ephesians  with  Hebrews  and  John 
as  against  Galatians,  Romans,  Corinthians,  and 
Philippians.  His  exegesis  must  be  studied  in  detail 
to  be   appreciated.     What  is  probably  true,  however, 


134     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

is  that  in  Ephesians  and  Colossians  the  sharp  distinc- 
tion between  the  two  Pauline  hemispheres  of  salva- 
tion has  disappeared,  and  thus  descriptions  properly 
belonging  to  the  one  aspect  are  immediately  connected 
with  those  belonging  to  the  other  in  a  way  not  so  often 
found  in  the  earlier  epistles.  This  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  doctrinal  treatment  of  salvation  in  Colossians 
and  Ephesians  is  dominated  no  longer  by  the  neces- 
sities of  the  anti-Judaistic  controversy,  but  by  the 
interests  of  practical  morality,  just  as  we  shall  also  find 
is  the  case  in  I.  Peter. 


§    18.    SALVATION    AS    MEDIATED   THROUGH 
CHRIST  IN  COLOSSIANS  AND  EPHESIANS 

It  is,  as  in  the  second  group  of  epistles,  central  that 
salvation  is  mediated  through  Christ.  Both  access  to  God 
and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  are  through  Him  (Eph.  i.  13,  14  ; 
Col.  i.  14).  Even  greater  emphasis  than  before  falls 
upon  His  Person.  Whereas  in  Romans  and  Corinthians 
God  reconciles  us  to  Himself  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
(Rom.  iii.  25,  26;  II.  Cor.  v.  21),  here  Christ  Himself 
personally  reconciles  us  to  God  (Col.  i.  22  ;  Eph.  ii.  16). 

The  sacrifice  of  Christ  appears  under  two  new  points 
of  view.     One  has  already  been  touched  upon.     The 


REALISATION   OF   SALVATION     135 

power  behind  the  law  is  conceived  as  that  of  hostile 
angels,  whose  bond  against  men  is  cancelled  by  the 
satisfaction  made  to  the  law  in  Christ's  death  (Col.  ii. 
14,  15).  What  is  new  in  this  view  is  that  the  satis- 
faction no  longer  appears  to  be  made  to  God,  but 
rather  to  a  power  more  or  less  independent  of  Him. 
The  element  previously  represented  as  the  "  wrath  " 
of  God  being  thus  objectified  into  independence,  we 
are  led  naturally  to  a  second  view  of  the  death  of 
Christ.  When  it  is  spoken  of  in  Eph.  v.  2  as  a  sacrifice 
to  God  it  is  no  longer  thought  of  as  a  propitiatory  sacrifice, 
but  as  a  free-will  offering  whose  acceptability  consists 
in  its  moral  nature,  viz.  in  the  love  which  prompted  it. 

It  is  further  to  be  observed  that,  in  Ephesians,  great 
emphasis  falls  on  the  social  aspect  of  salvation.  It 
is  the  Church  as  a  whole  for  which  Christ  sacrifices  Him- 
self (Eph.  V.  25);  it  is  the  Church  as  a  whole  to  which 
the  Spirit  is  given  (Eph.  iv.  4).  In  a  word,  it  is  the  Church 
as  a  whole  that  is  the  sphere  of  salvation,  and  individuals 
are  saved  by  membership  of  it. 

§  19.  THE   SUBJECTIVE    REALISATION  OF   SAL- 
VATION  IN   COLOSSIANS  AND   EPHESIANS 

We  find  in  our  epistles  the  idea  of  faith  made  use  of 
just  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  central  group.     Faith 


136     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

mediates  on  the  one  hand  peace  with  God  and  access 
to  Him  (Eph.  iii.  12),  and  on  the  other  hand  the  in- 
dwelling of  Christ  in  the  heart  (Eph.  iii.  17).  At  the 
same  time,  we  recognise  a  tendency,  which  goes  along 
with  the  greater  emphasis  on  the  Church,  to  objectify 
faith  into  "the  faith  "of  the  Church  (Col.  i.  23;  Eph. 
iv.  13).  Along  with  this  objectification  of  faith  goes 
emphasis  on  a  different  subjective  element.  When  faith 
is  objectified  as  "the  faith,"  the  subjective  faculty  by 
which  this  objectified  faith  is  received,  viz.  the  intellect, 
rises  into  prominence  ;  and  thus  we  find  in  our  epistles  a 
markedly  increased  stress  on  knowledge  (Eph.  i.  17  f., 
iv.  13  f.).  As,  however,  knowledge  corresponds  to 
only  the  intellectual  aspect  of  the  old  subjective  concep- 
tion of  faith,  the  idea,  formerly  expressed  by  the  moral 
side  of  (subjective)  faith,  requires  a  new  embodiment. 
Hence,  while  it  is  asserted  just  as  strongly  as  before  that 
salvation  is  not  by  works  or  merit  (Eph.  ii.  9),  we  find 
developed  in  our  epistles  the  conception  of  "  good  works," 
as  the  divinely  appointed  way  of  salvation  (Eph.  ii.  10). 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES 

We  may  begin  our  account  of  the  doctrine  of  salvation 
in  the  Pastoral  Epistles  with  a  reference  to  the  doctrine 
of  God,  so  far  as  it  bears  on  the  subject.  These  epistles 
emphasise  God's  grace,  His  love  to  men,  His  goodness 
and  mercy  (Titus  ii.  4,  iii.  4  f.).  God  is  also  frequently 
described  as  "  Saviour"  (I.  Tim.  i.  i,  ii.  3  ;  II.  Tim.  i.  9  ; 
Titus  ii.  10,  iii.  4).  Finally,  His  willingness  to  save  all 
men  is  expressly  asserted  (I.  Tim.  ii.  4). 

Salvation,  both  present  and  future,  is  mediated  through 
Jesus  Christ.  In  I.  Tim.  vi.  14;  II.  Tim.  iv.  i,  8; 
Titus  ii.  13,  we  have  references  to  Christ's  expected 
*' manifestation,"  i.e.  His  second  coming.  Then  will 
Christ's  kingdom  come  (II.  Tim.  iv.  i).  The  elect  will 
obtain  salvation  with  Him  in  eternal  glory  (II.  Tim.  i.  10), 
will  live  and  reign  with  Christ  (II.  Tim.  ii.  11,  12). 

It  is,  however,  characteristic  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles, 
that  the  term  "  manifestation "  is  used  not  only  of  the 
second  coming  of  Christ,  but  of  His  historical  appearance 


138     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

in  the  world,  as  the  ground  of  the  present  salvation, 
which  Christians  already  enjoy  (see  Titus  ii.  ii,  iii.  4). 
This  salvation  is  referred  to,  in  thoroughly  Pauline 
language,  as  justification  by  God's  grace  (Titus  iii.  7), 
not  by  our  works  of  righteousness  (Titus  iii.  5);  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  close  agreement  with  Pauline 
ideas,  though  not  in  Pauline  language,  it  is  spoken  of 
as  regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
has  been  poured  out  by  God  upon  Christians  through 
Jesus  Christ  (Titus  iii.  5,  6).  But  it  is  characteristic 
of  the  Pastoral  Epistles  that  the  tendency  observable  in 
Phil.  iii.  8-1 1,  to  make  justification  dependent  upon 
internal  righteousness,  is  still  more  developed  in  them. 
In  Titus  iii.  4-7  it  will  be  observed  that,  not  only  does 
the  mention  of  regeneration  precede  that  of  justifica- 
tion, but  that  justification  appears  to  take  place  through 
regeneration. 

In  accordance  with  this  stress  on  inherent  righteous- 
ness, we  find  further,  that  the  terms  "redemption"  and 
"  purification  "  are  both  used  to  describe  salvation  in  the 
sense,  not  of  justification  or  admission  to  communion  with 
God,  but  in  the  sense  of  moral  renewal ;  and  this  moral 
renewal  is  represented  as  the  purpose  of  Christ's  death 
(Titus  ii.  14). 


THE    PASTORAL    EPISTLES      139 

As  regards  the  subjective  appropriation  of  salvation, 
faith  ceases  to  occupy  in  the  Pastoral  Epistles  that 
place  which  it  has  in  the  typical  Paulinism.  It  has  be- 
come either  "  the  faith  "  of  the  Church,  or  one  Christian 
virtue  among  many,  no  longer  the  subjective  root  of 
the  whole  Christian  life.  See  for  the  first  case  I.  Tim. 
i.  19,  vi.  10,  12;  for  the  second  I.  Tim.  i.  5,  14,  ii.  7, 
iv.  12.  The  place  of  the  Pauline  idea  of  faith  is  largely 
taken  by  the  idea  of  godliness,  which  means  on  the 
one  hand  the  piety,  on  the  other  hand  the  good  moral 
life,  which  characterise  the  Christian  Church,  in  contrast 
with  the  vain  speculations  and  loose  life  of  heretics 
(see  I.  Tim.  vi.  3-5  ;  II.  Tim.  iii.  1-5).  We  have  in  all 
these  changes  a  further  development  along  the  lines 
already  observed  in  Colossians,  and  more  particularly 
Ephesians,  only  to  be  explained  by  the  ever-increasing 
stress  on  the  Church  as  the  sphere  of  salvation,  and  the 
authority  alike  for  faith  and  morals  (I.  Tim.  iii.  5). 
The  development  of  the  idea  of  the  Church,  however, 
is  again  to  be  explained  by  the  special  dangers  which 
Christianity  had  to  face  when  the  Pastoral  Epistles 
were  written.  The  opponents  to  be  met  were  no  longer, 
as  in  the  case  of  Paul's  central  epistles,  Judaisers  teach- 
ing justification  by  works,  but  Gnostic  heretics,  teaching 


I40     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

a  libertinism,  based  on  Paul's  own  principles  that  the 
law  is  transcended  for  Christians  (  I.  Tim.  i.  7-10). 
Against  this  false  doctrine  and  unsound  morals  a 
bulwark  was  found  in  the  common  faith  and  practice 
of  the  Christian  Church,  which  was  "  sound  "  and  good 
(I.  Tim  vi.  3  ;  II.  Tim.  i.  13,  iv.  3).  It  is  especially  on 
the  moral  life  that  the  emphasis  falls ;  and  thus  we  find 
the  demand  of  Colossians  and  Ephesians  for  good 
works  taken  up  and  made  even  stronger  (Titus  iii.  8,  14). 
There  is  no  salvation  apart  from  good  works  (Titus  ii. 
14);  though  Titus  iii.  4-7,  like  Eph.  ii.  10,  repeats,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  Pauline  doctrine  that  salvation  is  not  by 
merit.  But  the  ethical  interest  reacts  so  strongly  upon 
the  doctrine  of  salvation,  that  it  is  emphasised  in  the 
strongest  language  that  final  salvation  is  conditional 
(II.  Tim.  ii.  11 -12).  It  is  evident  that  we  have  moved 
a  good  way  here  from  the  Pauline  central  epistles; 
though  the  passages  already  referred  to  in  them,  like 
Phil.  iii.  8-1 1,  and  after  these  Colossians  and  Ephesians, 
form  a  continuous  bridge  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Pastoral 
Epistles. 


CHAPTER  VII 

I.  PETER 

EscHATOLOGY  is  very  prominent  in  I.  Peter.  Writing  at 
a  time  of  persecution,  Peter  encourages  his  readers  to 
look  forward  to  the  "  salvation  ready  to  be  revealed  in 
the  last  time  "  (i.  5),  which  is  to  be  inaugurated  by  the 
revelation  of  Jesus  Christ  (i.  7,  v.  4),  and  the  judgment 
of  the  world.  Though,  in  general,  God  appears  as  the 
judge  of  men  (i.  17,  ii.  23),  the  final  judgment  is 
expressly  assigned  to  Christ  (iv.  5),  who  will  judge 
both  the  living  and  the  dead,  (iv.  5),  the  righteous  and 
the  wicked  (iv.  17).  Those  who  are  approved  will 
inherit  eternal  glory  (v.  10),  receive  the  crown  of  glory 
(v.  4),  and  live  a  Hfe  of  immortality  (i.  4). 

A  peculiar  element  in  the  Petrine  doctrine  of  redemp- 
tion is  the  hope  held  out  that  some  may  be  saved,  who 
are  beyond  the  sphere  of  this  life.  In  iii.  19-21  we 
hear  of  a  preaching  by  Christ  to  the  spirits  in  prison, 
which  were  formerly  disobedient  in  the  days  of  Noah. 


142     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

"  This  phrase,"  says  Charles  (  "  Eschatology,"  col.  1380), 
"can  be  interpreted  only  in  two  ways.  The  spirits  in 
question  are  either  those  of  men  in  Sheol,  or  the  fallen 
angels  mentioned  in  II.  Pet.  ii.  4 ;  Jude  6.  In  the  next 
place  the  words  '  in  prison '  denote  the  local  condition 
of  the  spirits  at  the  time  of  preaching.  Hence  accord- 
ing to  the  text,  Christ  '  in  the  spirit '  {i.e.  between 
His  death  and  His  resurrection)  preached  the  Gospel  of 
redemption  to  human  or  angelic  spirits  in  the  under- 
world." Again  in  iv.  5  we  read,  "who  will  have  to 
give  account  to  Him  that  is  ready  to  judge  the  living 
and  the  dead.  For  with  this  purpose  was  the  Gospel 
preached  even  to  the  dead,  that  they  might  be  judged 
according  to  men  in  the  flesh,  but  live  according  to  God 
in  the  spirit."  Of  this  difficult  passage  Charles  gives 
the  following  interpretation  :  "The  doctrine  we  found 
stated  above  in  iii.  19-21  is  here  substantiated,  as 
being  part  of  the  larger  truth  now  enumerated.  Christ 
is  ready  to  judge  the  living  and  the  dead — the  latter  no 
less  than  the  former ;  for  even  to  the  dead  was  the 
Gospel  preached,  in  order  that  though  they  were  judged 
in  the  body,  they  might  live  the  life  of  God  in  the  spirit. 
Thus  it  is  taught  that,  when  the  last  Judgment  takes 
place,  the  Gospel  will  have  been  preached  to  all.     As  to 


I.    PETER  143 


how  far  this  preaching  of  redemption  succeeds  there  is 
no  hint  in  the  Petrine  teaching."  Charles  points  out  the 
extreme  importance  of  these  isolated  passages.  "  They 
attest  the  achievement  of  the  final  stage  in  the  moralisa- 
tion  of  Sheol."  The  first  stage  in  this  moralisation  took 
place  when,  in  the  second  century  B.C.,  Sheol  became 
a  place  no  longer  merely  of  social  or  external  distinc- 
tions, but  of  moral  distinctions.  But  this  moralisation 
of  Sheol  remained  inadequate.  The  very  idea  of  moral 
life  is  that  of  -  progress.  This  idea,  however,  was 
not  attained  as  far  as  Sheol  was  concerned.  According 
to  Jewish  theology,  followed  in  general  by  the  New 
Testament,  souls  in  Sheol  were  regarded  as  incapable  of 
moral  change.  What  they  were,  when  they  entered 
Sheol,  that  they  remained  till  the  final  Judgment.  The 
Petrine  passages  give  an  outlook  into  possibihties  beyond 
the  limits  of  this  general  conception,  which  are  of  the 
greatest  importance  for  a  true  idea  of  the  relation 
between  God  and  man. 

We  turn  to  the  conception  of  present  salvation  in 
I.  Peter.  What  we  find  is  in  practical  agreement  with 
the  ideas  of  Paul,  without,  however,  the  dialectical 
sharpness  of  his  theological  distinctions.  We  enjoy  in 
the  present  communion  with  God  through  the  work  of 


144     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Christ,  "who  suffered  for  sins  once,  the  righteous  for 
the  unrighteous"  (iii.  i8).  So  also  the  elect  are 
sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  Christ  (i.  2)  i.e.  brought  into 
communion  with  God  by  His  sacrifice.  Much  more 
closely,  however,  than  in  Paul  there  is  connected  with 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  the  idea  of  salvation  as  moral 
regeneration.  The  blood  of  Christ  redeems  from  the  vain 
manner  of  life  handed  down  from  the  past  (i.  18). 
Christ  bore  our  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the  tree,  that 
we,  having  died  unto  sins,  might  live  unto  righteousness 
(ii.  24).  In  these  passages  the  effect  of  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  is  described  in  a  way  unlike  the  characteristic 
thought  of  Paul,  in  which  it  appears  as  resulting  directly 
in  moral  renewal.  In  the  latter  passage,  particularly,  we 
seemx  to  have  the  two  Pauline  lines  of  thought  united  in 
one.  We  are  not  told,  however,  in  I.  Peter  how  the 
blood  of  Christ  redeems  from  vain  manner  of  life,  or 
how  His  sacrifice  results  in  a  death  unto  sin  and  a  life 
unto  righteousness.  The  Pauline  doctrine  would  seem 
to  be  presupposed ;  Peter  simply  makes  edificatory  use 
of  its  phrases,  without,  however,  observing  the  niceties 
of  Pauline  theology,  with  its  sharp  distinction  of  the  two 
sides  of  salvation.  Compare  further  the  general  agree- 
ment with  Paul,  when  it  is  said  that  we  are  regenerated 


I.    PETER  145 


through  Christ's  resurrection  (i.  3),  just  as  Paul  describes 
salvation  as  resurrection  with  Christ  and  new  life  in 
union  with  Him ;  also  when  it  is  said  that  the  Spirit  of 
God  rests  upon  Christians  (iv.  14),  and  that  they  are  elect 
unto  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  (i.  i,  2),  just  as  Paul 
makes  salvation  consist  in  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  and 
moral  renewal  by  Him. 

The  difference  from  Paul  appears  most  strongly  when 
we  come  to  the  subjective  conception  corresponding  to  the 
objective  idea  just  mentioned.  The  notion  of  faith  is 
totally  different  from  that  of  Paul.  The  idea  of  faith  as 
personal  trust  in  Christ,  especially  as  mystical  union  with 
Christ,  is  not  to  be  found.  Faith  appears  rather  as  belief 
in  the  promises  of  God  sustained  by  the  resurrection 
of  Christ,  and  practically  is  little  different  from  hope 
(i.  21),  except  only  that  it  rests  upon  the  resurrection  as 
a  firm  ground,  so  that  its  hope  is  a  living  hope  (i.  3). 

The  other  element  in  the  subjective  appropriation 
of  salvation  is  baptism.  With  this,  viewed  not  as  a 
mere  external  ceremony,  but  on  its  spiritual  side,  salva- 
tion is  closely  connected  (iii.  21).  Thus  much  is  clear; 
though  the  exact  meaning  of  the  difficult  phrase,  trans- 
lated in  the  R.V.  ^'the  interrogation  of  a  good  con- 
science towards  God,"  is  hard  to  determine. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

HEBREWS 

§  I.  THE   IDEAS   OF   SALVATION 

The  doctrine  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  in  many 
ways  parallel  with  that  of  I.  Peter.  Eschatology  is 
again  much  in  the  foreground,  and  the  deviations  from 
Paul  in  the  idea  of  present  salvation  closely  resemble 
those  of  I.  Peter.  But  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  epistle 
is  systematised,  in  a  way  altogether  lacking  in  I.  Peter, 
by  the  influence  of  a  fresh  conception,  derived  from  the 
Alexandrian  philosophy. 

We  begin  with  the  idea  of  future  salvation.  The 
reward  of  the  righteous  is  to  be  in  heaven  (vi.  19  f.), 
where  they  have  an  eternal  inheritance  (ix.  15),  a 
better  country  (xi.  16),  a  city  which  is  to  come  (xiii.  14), 
whose  builder  and  maker  is  God  (xi.  9  f.).  The 
blessedness  of  the  righteous  is  described  as  a  participa- 
tion in  the  glory  of  God  (ii.    10),  and   in   the  Divine 

vision  (xii.  14). 

146 


THE    IDEAS    OF    SALVATION     147 

This  salvation  is  to  be  brought  about  at  the  appear- 
ance of  Christ  unto  salvation  (ix.  28).  The  resurrection 
appears  to  be  reserved  for  the  righteous  only.  "This 
follows  from  xi.  35,  *that  they  might  obtain  a  better 
resurrection.'  These  words,  which  refer  to  the  Macca- 
bsean  martyrs  (II.  Mace,  vii.),  set  the  resurrection  in 
contrast  with  a  merely  temporal  deliverance  from  death, 
and  represent  it  as  a  prize  to  be  striven  for,  not  as  the 
common  lot  of  all "  (Charles,  "  Eschatology,"  col.  1378). 
The  judgment  is  simultaneous  with  the  second  coming 
of  Christ;  but  He  does  not  judge  (ix.  27  f.,  x.  .37). 
God  is  the  judge  (x.  30),  the  judge  of  all  (xii.  23). 
The  wicked  are  doomed  to  destruction  (x.  39),  some- 
thing far  worse  than  bodily  death  (ix.  27),  and  repre- 
sented as  a  consuming  fire  (x.  27,  xii.  29;  cf.  vi.  8). 
The  Day  of  Judgment  is  near  at  hand  (x.  25).  It  will 
be  introduced  by  a  final  shaking  of  the  heaven  and  the 
earth  (xii.  26 ;  cf.  xii.  25,  29). 

Thus  far  we  have  no  specially  peculiar  features  in 
the  doctrine  of  Hebrews.  The  Alexandrian  element, 
however,  which  was  previously  mentioned,  appears  in 
the  conception  that  this  heavenly  salvation  is  not 
only  future,  but  already  exists  in  the  present  in  the 
unseen  world ;  so  that  the  passing  away  of  the  present 


148     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

world  will  only  be  the  unveiling  of  what  now  truly  is, 
"the  removing  of  those  things  that  are  shaken,  that 
those  things  that  are  not  shaken  may  remain."  The 
author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  identifies  the 
sphere  of  the  Christian  salvation  with  the  Alexandrian 
idea  of  the  intelligible  world,  which  lies  beyond  the 
senses,  and  is  in  the  first  place  the  opposite  of  this 
present  world.  "That  is  to  say,  it  is  related  to  the 
latter  (this  creation,  ix.  ii),  as  the  original  sanctuary, 
which  Moses  saw  in  heaven,  is  related  to  the  earthly 
one  which  he  prepared  according  to  that  pattern, 
or  as  the  original,  which  in  its  essence  is  Divine, 
heavenly,  supersensuous,  perfect,  and  eternal,  is  related 
to  the  finite  and  the  sensuous,  which  is  merely  an 
imperfect  copy  and  likeness,  traced  from  the  shadow 
of  the  Divine  pattern  (viii.  1-5,  ix.  23),  and  is  distin- 
guished as  the  visible  (ix.  3),  tangible  (xii.  18),  change- 
able, that  can  be  shaken,  from  the  original  pattern, 
which  is  the  invisible  (ix.  i),  that  cannot  be  shaken 
(xi.  27),  and  eternal.  As  the  dwelling-place  of  God  this 
higher  world  is  called  the  house  of  God  (ix.  21),  the 
true  tabernacle  (viii.  2),  the  city  which  has  firm  foun- 
dations (ix.  10),  the  fatherland,  the  heavenly  city 
(ix.  14,  16),  Zion  the  mountain  and  city  of  the  living 


THE    IDEAS    OF    SALVATION     149 

God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  (xii.  22),  and  finally 
the  kingdom  which  cannot  be  shaken "  (Pfleiderer, 
"  Paulinism,"  ii.  p.  56  :  the  Greek  quotations  are  rendered 
into  English).  From  this  identification  of  the  Messianic 
kingdom  of  primitive  Christian  hope  with  the  higher 
world  of  Greek  speculation,  follow^s  a  noteworthy  result. 
Since,  in  a  true  sense,  the  Messianic  kingdom  already 
exists  in  heaven,  Christians  are  even  in  this  world 
partakers  of  the  Messianic  salvation.  We  are  already 
come  to  Mount  Zion,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  already 
in  this  world  are  enrolled  among  its  citizens  (xii.  22, 
23),  and  already  receive  and  enjoy  its  gifts  and  powers 
(vi.  4,  5,  xii.  28).  It  only  requires  faith  in  the  unseen 
world  to  realise  this  (xi.  i) ;  as  the  writer  of  Hebrews 
urges  by  the  example  of  the  long  line  of  the  heroes 
of  faith  in  the  magnificent  eleventh  chapter  of  the 
epistle.  The  Christian  salvation,  then,  is  not  only  a 
future  hope,  but  a  present  possession.  The  Christian 
is  already  "  perfected "  (x.  14),  even  in  this  life  :  thus 
the  writer  expresses  in  his  own  way  the  doctrine  of 
present  salvation  in  practical  agreement  with  Jesus 
and  with  Paul. 


I50     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

§  2.  THE   MEDIATION   OF  SALVATION 
THROUGH   CHRIST 

In  its  form,  however,  the  doctrine  of  present  salvation 
in  Hebrews  is  very  different  from  that  of  either  Jesus  or 
Paul,  resembling  most  closely  the  doctrine  of  I.  Peter. 
This  arises  from  the  peculiar  controversial  character 
of  the  epistle,  the  point  of  which  is  to  prove  that 
Christianity,  in  opposition  to  Judaism,  is  the  true  form 
of  Divine  worship,  the  proof  being  accomplished  by  the 
opposition  of  Christianity,  as  belonging  to  the  real  and 
unseen  world,  and  thus  eternal  in  its  nature,  to  Judaism, 
as  belonging  merely  to  the  present  world  of  sense,  and 
thus  only  transitory  in  character.  As  a  result  of  this 
purpose  of  the  epistle,  however,  the  form  in  which 
the  value  of  Christianity  is  expressed  is  conditioned  by 
that  of  the  religion  opposed  to  it,  i.e.  the  benefits  c, 
Christianity  are  expressed  in  terms  of  the  ceremonial 
law.  Thus  the  author  of  Hebrews  expresses  the 
doctrine  that  in  Christianity  we  have  communion  with 
God  by  saying,  not  that  we  are  justified,  but  that  we 
are  perfected,  sanctified,  or  cleansed.  The  means  of 
this  cleansing  is  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  on  which  the 
writer  lays  great  stress,   in   opposition   to   the   Jewish 


MEDIATION    OF    SALVATION     151 

sacrifices.  They  could  only  procure  a  ceremonial  and 
external  cleansing;  it  procures  the  true  cleansing  of 
the  heart.  They  had  to  be  repeated;  it  has  been 
offered  once  and  for  all.  See  on  the  whole  subject 
(ix.  i-x.  25).  The  writer  does  not  explain  how  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ  cleanses.  The  cleansing  power  of 
sacrifice  was  no  doubt  axiomatic  for  him,  as  for  the 
ancient  world  in  general,  and  the  effect  of  the  work  of 
Christ  in  this  respect  seemed  sufficiently  explained  by 
the  simple  analogy  of  His  death  with  the  Jewish  sacri- 
fices, the  differences  between  them  being  taken  into 
account.  If,  however,  the  writer  of  Hebrews  has  given 
us  little  help  in  this  direction  towards  an  understanding 
of  the  effect  of  the  work  of  Christ,  in  another  respect 
ne  has  made  a  great  contribution  to  the  New  Testament 
ioctrines  on  the  subject.  This  is  by  his  conception  that 
'le  worth  to  God  of  Christ's  sacrifice  consisted  in  His 
obedience  (x.  5-9;  compare  Eph.  v.  2).  Another  note- 
vorthy  saying  on  the  subject  in  Hebrews  is  that  it  was 
Dy  the  Eternal  Spirit  that  Christ  offered  Himself  to 
God  (ix.  14).  In  general  it  is  not  so  much  the  passive 
side  of  Christ's  sacrifice,  that  in  which  He  appears  as 
a  victim,  but  rather  the  active  side,  that  in  which  He 
appears  as  the  sacrificing  priest,  on  which  our  author 


152     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

dwells.  Christ  having  made  purification  of  sins  (i.  3), 
has  entered  into  the  eternal  world,  there  for  ever  pre- 
senting Himself  before  God  as  high  priest  on  -behalf 
of  those  who  come  to  God  through  Him  (iv.  14-v.  10, 
vii.  25-viii.  6).  The  author  of  Hebrews  has  further 
connected  this  high-priestly  work  of  Christ  not  only 
with  His  obedient  offering  of  His  death,  but  also  with 
His  obedient  offering  of  His  whole  life  (v.  7-9);  so 
that  in  these  respects  the  evangelical  picture  of  Jesus 
receives  fuller  interpretation  than  it  does  from  Paul. 

The  barrier  to  communion  with  God,  which  is 
removed  by  the  cleansing  or  sanctification  of  the 
Christian,  is  that  of  sin.  The  author  of  Hebrews 
does  not,  however,  like  Paul,  dwell  on  the  objective 
side  of  the  barrier,  the  curse  of  the  law,  the  wrath  of 
God,  and  so  on,  but  thinks  rather  of  the  subjective 
side  of  it,  the  conscience  of  sins  (x.  2,  22).  He  does, 
indeed,  in  his  own  way,  recognise  the  objective  side 
also  by  the  view  that  the  death  of  Christ  delivers 
men  from  the  power  of  death  and  the  devil.  Here 
we  have  a  parallel  to  that  development  of  Pauline 
thought  in  Gal.  iii.  19;  Col.  ii.  14,  15,  in  which  the 
barrier  imposed  by  the  curse  of  the  law  is  separated 
from  the  Divine  will,  and  regarded  as  located  in  the 


MEDIATION    OF    SALVATION     153 

angelic  powers  who  gave  the  law  and  enforce  its 
claims.  In  Hebrews  for  the  hostile  angels  and  their 
claims  is  substituted  the  devil  and  his  power  of  death. 
Yet  even  in  this  view  the  author  of  Hebrews  shows 
his  subjectivity  by  emphasising  especially  as  that  from 
which  men  are  delivered,  not  death  itself,  but  the 
fear  of  it  (see  on  the  whole  ii.  14,  15). 

There  is  no  mystical  doctrine  of  salvation  by  union 
with  Christ  in  Hebrews.  On  the  contrary,  Christ 
rather  appears  as  the  moral  example  of  Christians, 
the  "leader"  of  their  faith  (xii.  1-3).  In  agreement 
with  this,  the  presentation  of  the  subjective  side  of 
salvation  is  very  different  from  that  of  Paul.  Faith 
in  Hebrews  means,  not  as  in  Paul's  epistles,  personal 
trust  in  Christ  and  mystical  union  with  Him,  but 
rather,  as  in  I.  Peter,  a  firm  conviction  of  unseen 
realities,  differing  only  from  hope  in  that  it  rests  on 
an  assured  basis  of  Divine  promise  (xi.  i). 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE   APOCALYPSE 

In  this  book  it  is  the  future  aspect  of  salvation  which 

is  almost  exclusively  dominant.     The  book  is  written  to 

encourage  Christians,  in  face  of  fierce  persecution,  to  hold 

fast  their  religion  in  view  of  their  coming  deliverance 

and  of  the  coming  judgment  of  the  hostile  powers,  who 

persecute  them.     Charles    distinguishes    four   principal 

heads  of  doctrine  as  to  future  salvation  in  the  Apocalypse. 

These  are  :  (a)  the  Parusia  and  the  Messianic  judgment ; 

(d)  the  first  resurrection,  the  Millennium,  the  uprising 

and    destruction    of   Gog  and  Magog;  (c)  the  generai 

resurrection  and  judgment ;  (d)  the  final  consummation 

of  the  righteous. 

With  regard  to  («),  it  is  to  be  observed  that  every 

visitation   of   the   churches   is    regarded  as   a   spiritual 

coming  of  the  Messiah  (ii.  5,  16,  iii.  3,  20);  but  beyond 

this  the   apocalyptic  writer  proclaims   the  speedy  final 

advent  of  Christ,  visible  to  all  (i.  7,  iii.  11).     This  ends 

154 


THE    APOCALYPSE  155 

in  the  judgment  of  the  hostile  powers,  which  are  de- 
stroyed (xvi.  16,  xix.  20,  21).  After  this  follow  {b)  the 
first  resurrection  and  the  Millennium.  Satan  is  chained  : 
the  martyrs,  and  the  martyrs  only,  rise  and  reign  with 
Christ  on  the  earth  a  thousand  years  (xx.  4-6),  Jeru- 
salem being  the  centre  of  the  kingdom.  Then  Satan  is 
loosed :  Gog  and  Magog,  the  terrible  enemies  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  foretold  by  Ezekiel  (Ezek.  xxxviii.  2, 
xxxix.  16),  make  an  attack  upon  the  millennial  kingdom. 
They  are,  however,  destroyed  by  God  Himself  with  fire 
from  heaven  (xx.  9) ;  and  the  devil  is  finally  cast  into 
the  lake  of  fire  (xx.  10).  (c)  The  present  heaven  and  earth 
pass  away  (xx.  11)  ',  and  all  are  raised  to  judgment  before 
God,  being  judged  according  to  their  works,  as  recorded 
in  the  heavenly  books  (xx.  12).  The  wicked,  with  Death 
and  Hades,  are  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire,  which  is  the 
second  death  (xx.  14,  xxi.  8).  {d)  There  is  then  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  (xxi.  1,5);  and  the  heavenly 
city,  Jerusalem,  descends  upon  the  earth  (xxi.  10-21). 
"  The  ideal  kingdom  of  God  becomes  actual.  The  city 
needs  no  temple  :  God  and  Christ  (the  Lamb)  dwell  in 
it  (xxi.  22).  The  citizens  dwell  in  perfect  fellowship  with 
God,  and  are  as  kings  unto  God  (xxii.  5).  The  Messiah 
does  not  resign  His   mediatorial  functions,  as  in   the 


156     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Pauline  eschatology (xxi.  2 1  f.)."  (Charles,  "  Eschatology," 
col.  1377.) 

As  regards  present  salvation,  naturally  in  a  book, 
where  the  whole  gaze  is  so  strained  towards  the  future, 
not  very  much  is  said.  But  deliverance  from  sins  by 
the  blood  of  Christ,  who  is  the  Lamb  slain  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world  (xiii.  8 ;  compare  v.  6)  is  men- 
tioned as  a  privilege,  not  only  of  the  future  (v.  9,  vii.  14), 
but  also  of  the  present  (i.  5) ;  and  Christians  are  already 
kings  and  priests  unto  God  (i.  6).  Subjectively  the 
condition  of  salvation  is  faith,  which,  however,  in  the 
Apocalypse  means,  much  as  in  Hebrews,  the  firm  con- 
viction of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  issuing  in 
patience  under  affliction  and  persecution  (xiii.  10). 
Repentance  also  is  required,  where  there  has  been  back- 
sliding, as  in  the  case  of  the  church  at  Ephesus  (ii.  5). 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   EPISTLE   OF  JAMES 

"  The  entire  content  of  the  Epistle  of  James,"  says  Titius, 
"  is  monotheism,  eschatology,  and  ethics  "  (^Die  neutesta- 
me7itliche  Lthre  von  der  Seligkeit,  iv.  117).  The  advent  of 
the  Messiah,  who  will  judge  the  world,  is  close  at  hand 
(v.  8).  He  alone  can  save  or  destroy  (iv.  12).  The  faithful 
will  enter  into  the  promised  kingdom  (ii.  5).  A  fire  will 
consume  the  wicked  (v.  3).  They  will  be  delivered  to 
the  death,  not  only  of  the  body  but  of  the  soul  (v.  20). 

Upon  what  grounds,  then,  is  the  decision  made 
between  the  saved  and  the  unsaved  ?  Not,  says  James, 
here  in  sharp  contrast  with  Paul,  on  the  ground  of  faith 
apart  from  works.  On  the  contrary,  faith  apart  from 
works  is  dead  (ii.  20).  By  faith,  however,  James  under- 
stands simply  an  intellectual  conviction  of  unseen  reality, 
especially  of  the  unity  of  God  (ii.  19).  This  he  says, 
apart  from  works,  cannot  save  (ii.  14).  James  thinks  of 
Christianity  as  a  new  law,  different,  indeed,  from  the  old 


158     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

law,  in  that  it  is  a  law  of  liberty  {i.e.  is  freely  obeyed), 
but  still  a  law,  according  to  which  men  are  judged  (ii.  12). 
James  does  not,  indeed,  deny  that  God's  mercy  is  a  factor 
in  the  judgment.  On  the  contrary,  none  can  fulfil  the 
law  perfectly  (iii.  2),  and  so  claim  the  "crown  of  life" 
as  a  reward.  But  God's  very  justice  means  that  He  will 
show  mercy  as  a  just  recompense  to  the  merciful. 
"Judgment  is  without  mercy  to  him  that  hath  showed 
no  mercy:  mercy  glorieth  against  judgment"  (ii.  13). 

As  regards  present  salvation,  justification  is  conceived 
as  anticipated  in  the  present  (ii.  21,  25),  just  as  by  Paul. 
This  must  mean  for  James,  with  his  presuppositions, 
however,  that  there  is  a  present  justification  to  him  who 
proves  his  faith  by  his  works,  so  long  as  he  continues  to 
do  so.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  also  is  spoken  of  as  to 
be  enjoyed  in  the  present  (v.  15). 

It  is  noteworthy  that  there  is  in  James  no  reference 
at  all  to  the  work  of  Christ.  Practically  the  only 
recognition  of  the  mediation  of  salvation  through 
Him  is  the  recognition  of  Him  as  the  coming 
Messiah  (ii.  i),  who  can  save  or  destroy  in  the  Day  of 
Judgment  (iv.  12).  It  may  be  added  that  James  pre- 
sents in  brief  outline  a  doctrine  of  sin  in  close  agree- 
ment with  the  Pauline  doctrine  (see  especially  i.  14,  15). 


THE    EPISTLE    OF    JAMES        159 

It  is  further,  according  to  James,  the  work  of  the 
law  to  convict  men  of  sin.  James  agrees  entirely  with 
Paul  as  to  the  absolute  demand  of  the  law  (ii.  10). 
Here  the  law  referred  to  is  the  Old  Testament  law,  as 
the  special  precepts  referred  to  show.  The  law  against 
respect  of  persons  (ii.  9)  is  to  be  found  in  Deut.  i.  17, 
xvi.  19;  while  ii.  11  quotes  the  sixth  and  seventh 
commandments  of  the  Decalogue  (Exod.  xx.  13,  14). 
James,  however,  seems  to  draw  no  very  sharp  distinc- 
tion between  the  new  law  and  the  old  law. 


CHAPTER   XI 

JUDE   AND   II.   PETER 

These  two  epistles  are  closely  connected  together. 
Both  are  full  of  the  expectation  of  the  Parusia,  which 
is  to  be  a  day  of  mercy  unto  eternal  life  for  Christian 
believers  (Jude  21),  but  a  day  of  judgment  upon  all 
the  ungodly  (Jude  14,  15),  including  the  rebel  angels, 
who  since  their  fall  have  been  kept  in  everlasting  bonds 
under  darkness  till  the  great  day  (Jude  t;  cf.  II.  Pet. 
ii.  4).  At  the  Parusia,  moreover,  the  present  earth 
will  be  destroyed  by  fire  (II.  Pet.  iii.  10),  giving  place 
to  a  new  heaven  and  earth,  the  habitation  of  righteous- 
ness (II.  Pet.  iii.  13).  Future  salvation  is  spoken  of 
as  a  participation  in  the  Divine  nature  (II.  Pet.  i.  4). 
A  peculiar  feature  of  II.  Peter  is  its  teaching  on  the 
delay  of  the  Parusia.  It  appears  that  this  delay  had 
caused  some  to  mock  and  others  to  doubt  (II.  Pet.  iii. 
1-9).  The  difficulty  is  met  by  the  principle  that  one 
day   is   with   the    Lord   as    a    thousand   years,   and   a 

x6o 


JUDE    AND    II.    PETER  i6i 

thousand  years  as  one  day  (II.  Pet.  iii.  8) ;  also  by 
the  statement  that  the  delay  is  a  delay  in  mercy, 
intended  to  allow  men  more  time  for  repentance 
(II.  Pet.  iii.  9). 

As  regards  present  salvation,  this  consists  in  hope, 
and  the  possession  of  the  Spirit  (Jude  20).  II.  Pet. 
i.  I  speaks  of  Christians,  in  semi-Pauline  phraseology, 
as  having  obtained  a  precious  faith  in  the  righteousness 
of  our  God  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Further  on, 
however,  faith  appears  as  one  among  the  many  graces 
of  the  Christian  life  (II.  Pet.  i.  5);  while  in  Jude  3,  20 
"  the  faith  "  of  the  Church  is  spoken  of.  Both  epistles 
urge  strongly  the  necessity  of  the  moral  life.  Forgive- 
ness is  thought  of  in  II.  Pet.  i.  9  as  taking  place  at 
baptism :  after  this  it  is  incumbent  on  the  Christian 
to  make  his  final  salvation  certain  by  adding  to  his 
faith  the  practical  virtues  (II.  Pet.  i.  5-7).  At  the 
same  time  Jude  24  recognises  that  it  is  God  alone 
who  can  keep  His  people  from  stumbling,  and  bring 
them  to  His  eternal  joy ;  while  II.  Peter  equally  affirms 
the  necessity  of  the  Divine  grace,  though  this  tends 
to  be  resolved  into  the  communication  of  the  know- 
ledge of  Christ  (11.  Pet.  i.  2,  3,  iii.  8). 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE   GOSPEL   AND   EPISTLES   OF  JOHN 

§  I.  THE   FUTURE   SALVATION 

The  writings  of  John  above  named  bring  to  completion 

the  tendency  observable  in  the  development  of  Christian 

thought  by  Paul,  and  also  in  Hebrews,  to  remove  the 

emphasis  from  the  idea  of  future  to  that   of  present 

salvation.     We  may  regard  this  movement  of  thought 

on  the  one  hand  as  an  unfolding  of  what  was  latent 

in  Christianity  from  the   first,  or   as   the  liberation   of 

the  specifically  Christian  ideas  from  the  Jewish  forms 

in  which   they  at   first   took   shape  in  the  teaching  of 

Jesus.       On   the    other    hand,   there   is  no  doubt   that 

the   change   was    occasioned    partly    by    the    external 

course  of  events  in  the  Christian  Church.     The  delay 

of  the  Parusia  made  most  necessary  a  presentation  of 

Christianity,  which  should  enable  the  Church  to  bear 

this  delay  with  equanimity ;  and  nothing  can  be  more 

fitted  for  this  purpose   than  the   Johannine    doctrine, 

162 


THE    FUTURE    SALVATION      163 

that  the  Christian  salvation  can  be  enjoyed  in  all 
essential  points  in  the  present.  Nevertheless  John 
retains  the  primitive  Christian  eschatology  side  by 
side  with  his  own  specific  doctrine  of  salvation.  The 
eschatological  element  is,  however,  very  small  in  the 
Gospel :  it  is  in  I.  John  that  it  is  principally  to  be 
found. 

John  repeats  first  of  all  the  message  that  the  Parusia 
is  close  at  hand.  It  is  foretold  in  John  xiv.  3,  where 
Jesus  promised  to  return  from  heaven,  and  to  take 
the  disciples  to  be  with  Him  where  He  is,  i.e.  in  heaven. 
Some  of  the  disciples  are  expected  to  survive  till  this 
consummation  (xxi.  18).  John  himself  in  his  extreme 
old  age  hopes  to  witness  it,  together  with  his  disciples 
(I.  John  ii.  28).  The  present  is  the  last  hour  (I.  John  ii, 
18);  as  is  evidenced  by  the  appearance  of  Antichrist  in 
the  false  teachers,  who  deny  the  fundamental  truths  cf 
the  Gospel.  Such  a  manifestation  must  precede  the 
Parusia  (I.  John  ii.  18,  22,  iv.  13).  On  the  last  day 
Jesus  raises  His  own  to  the  resurrection  life  (John  vi.  39, 
44,  54,  xi.  25).  In  v.  28  it  is  taught  that  all  the  dead 
rise.  Jesus  Himself  executes  the  final  Judgment  (v.  27). 
The  resurrection  is  a  resurrection  of  life  to  those  who 
have  done  good,  a  resurrection  of  judgment  to  those 


i64     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

who  have  done  ill  (v.  29).  After  the  resurrection  and 
the  final  Judgment  the  present  world  passes  away 
{I.  John  ii.  17),  and  Jesus  takes  His  own  to  be  with  Him 
in  heaven  (John  xii.  26,  xiv.  25,  xvii.  24).  Thus  behold- 
ing the  face  of  God,  they  shall  be  transformed  into 
the  Divine  likeness  (I.  John  iii.  2). 


§  2.  THE  PRESENT  SALVATION 

In  all  this  salvation  appears  as  future,  and  therefore 
still  as  matter  of  hope  (I.  John  iii.  3).  We  now,  how- 
ever, turn  to  what  is  really  the  dominant  and  character- 
istic teaching  of  the  Johannine  writings,  viz.  that  in  the 
present  all  the  elements  of  the  future  consummation 
are  in  essence  realised.  "In  a  certain  sense  in  the 
Johannine  teaching  the  kingdom  has  already  come, 
the  Christ  is  already  present,  the  faithful  already  risen, 
and  the  judgment  already  in  fulfilment"  (Charles, 
*'  Eschatology,"  col.  1378).  John,  indeed,  hardly  makes 
use  of  the  primitive  Christian  name  of  the  kingdom  (see, 
however,  John  iii.  5,  xviii.  36).  Instead  of  this  he  uses 
what  with  Jesus  Himself  is  an  alternative  name  for  the 
•content  of  salvation,  viz.,  eternal  life.  A  central 
■doctrine  of  John  is  that  the  Christian  has  eternal  life 


THE    PRESENT    SALVATION     165 

here  and  now.  This  is  his  most  general  account  of 
the  present  salvation  of  the  Christian.  Further,  he  who 
has  this  eternal  life  cannot  die.  Not  only  shall  he  rise 
again  in  the  resurrection  at  the  last  day  (John  xi.  24), 
but  more  than  this,  death  cannot  destroy  his  life 
(John  xi.  25,  26).  He  has  passed  from  death  into 
life  (JohiL  V.  24).  Again,  the  judgment  is  anticipated 
here  and  now.  One  side  of  this  idea  is  the  Johannine 
equivalent  of  the  Pauline  doctrine  of  present  justifica- 
tion. John  expresses  the  Pauline  idea  that  the  believer 
is  already  justified  in  the  still  stronger  form  that  he 
does  not  come  into  judgment  at  all  (John  v.  24 ;  cf.  iii. 
17,  18).  The  reverse  side  of  the  Johannine  doctrine 
of  judgment,  which  corresponds  to  the  Pauline  teaching 
that  the  whole  world  is  shut  up  under  condemnation, 
is  that  the  unsaved  are  judged  already  (John  iii.  18). 
We  shall  return  to  this  point  later  on. 

In  the  Pauline  system  we  found  as  an  alternative 
expression  for  justification  the  idea  of  reconciliation. 
The  justified  are  restored  to  communion  with  God, 
and  have  peace  with  Him.  In  John  the  matter  is  not 
presented  exactly  at  this  angle;  but  communion  with 
God  (and  with  Christ)  is  dwelt  on,  as  an  important 
element  in  salvation  (I.  John  i.  3).     John  also  differs 


i66     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

from  Paul  somewhat  in  representing  salvation,  not  as 
a  complete  justification,  but  as  a  state  of  communion 
in  which  the  believer  still  requires  the  renewal  of  the 
Divine  forgiveness  (1.  John  i.  9  ;  ^  John  xiii.  10). 

We  also  found  in  the  Pauline  theology  as  another 
alternative  for  justification  the  idea  of  adoption.  John 
also  presents  salvation  as  a  state  of  sonship  (I.  John  iii. 
12);  but,  with  a  characteristic  difference  from  Paul, 
does  not  make  use  of  the  name  adoption.  His  idea  is 
rather  that  of  a  new  nature,  than  that  of  a  new  right. 
The  Christian  is  born  of  God  (i.  13),  begotten  of  God 
(I.  John  iii.  9),  born  of  the  Spirit  (John  iii.  3-8). 
Hence  John  uses  rather  the  phrase  "  children  of  God," 
which  according  to  Greek  usage  suggests  the  community 
of  nature  between  father  and  son,  than  "sons  of  God," 
which  suggests  similarly  the  right  and  privileges  of 
sonship.  An  approach  to  the  Pauline  idea  appears, 
according  to  the  R.V.  translation,  in  John  i.  12  :  "to  as 
many  as  received  Him  to  them  gave  He  the  right  to 
become  children  of  God."  Probably,  however,  we  should 
rather  translate  here,  more  in  harmony  with  the  general 
Johannine  point  of  view  :  "  to  them  gave  He  the  power 
to  become  children  of  God  "  (so  Weizsacker's  translation). 

The  idea  of  sonship  in  John,  then,  approaches  more 


THE    PRESENT    SALVATION    167 

nearly  to  the  Pauline  mystical  than  to  the  Pauline 
judicial  idea  of  salvation.  Even  in  Paul  the  idea  of 
sonship  formed  a  bridge  from  the  judicial  to  the 
mystical  idea  of  salvation  through  the  conception  of  the 
spirit  of  adoption  received  by  the  Christian.  In  John 
the  idea  of  sonship  has  still  further  passed  over  to  the 
mystical  side. 

We  also  find  in  John  the  immediate  expression  of  the 
same  mystical  idea  of  salvation  as  in  Paul.  Salvation 
is  union  ^Yith  Christ :  He  is  in  us,  and  we  in  Him 
(John  XV.  4).  But  John  goes  even  further  than  Paul, 
and  thinks  of  it  as  union  with  God  (John  xvii.  20-23). 
In  John,  however,  there  is  no  such  sharp  distinction 
of  the  different  aspects  of  salvation  as  in  Paul.  Rather 
do  the  latter  shade  off  into  one  another;  while  they 
are  all  united  together  by  the  common  idea  of  salvation 
as  eternal  life.  "  In  general,"  says  Titius,  "  the  different 
views  are  not  to  be  added  up  in  order  to  obtain  the 
correct  picture  of  salvation  as  a  whole ;  but  each  of 
these  groups  of  ideas  represents  the  whole  salvation 
over  again,  certainly  under  a  special  point  of  view" 
{Die    neutestameniliche    Lehre    von    der    Saligkeit^    iii. 

P-  30)- 

Finally,    however,    we   get   no   correct    idea   of   the 

M 


i68     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Johannine  conception  of  salvation,  unless  we  observe 
the  great  stress  laid  on  its  ethical  character.  Eternal 
life  proves  its  reality  by  its  ethical  working  (I.  John  iii. 
14).  To  be  born  of  God  is  to  do  no  sin  (I.  John  iii. 
9 :  cf.  also  V.  10).  In  symbolic  language,  to  have 
fellowship  with  God  is  described  as  walking  in  the  light 
(compare  I.  John  i.  6,  7).  Or  again,  in  another  figure, 
the  end  of  union  with  Christ  is  fruit-bearing  (John  xr. 
1-16).  To  sum  up,  in  whatever  form  John  represents 
salvation,  its  ethical  character  and  working  are  clearly 
expressed  and  forcibly  emphasised.  We  have,  then,  a 
more  unified  conception  of  salvation  than  the  Pauline, 
whose  great  fundamental  antitheses  are  resolved  into 
mere  aspects  of  a  single  idea.  John  has,  in  fact,  while 
adopting  many  of  the  more  developed  ideas  of  Paul, 
in  his  general  scheme  preserved  the  lines  of  the  simpler 
presentation  of  Jesus,  from  whom  comes  his  funda- 
mental conception  of  eternal  life.  In  this  way  the 
Gospel  of  John  proclaims  its  real  agreement  with  the 
Synoptic  tradition,  while  at  the  same  time  manifesting 
its  own  specific  difference,  and  showing  evidence  of 
the  progress  of  Christian  thought  since  the  first  pro- 
clamation of  the  Evangel  by  Jesus. 


THE    JOHANNINE    DOCTRINE     169 

§  3.  THE  JOHANNINE  DOCTRINE  OF   MAN 
AND  SIN 

It  will  have  been  observed  that  John's  conception 
of  salvation  is  mainly  positive,  and  prospective,  like 
that  of  Jesus,  which  is,  again,  another  point  closely  con- 
necting the  teaching  of  John  with  that  of  Jesus.  The 
negative  and  retrospective  side  is,  however,  not  wanting. 
Salvation  means  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  means  cleans- 
ing from  sin  (I.  John  i.  7-9). 

Though  we  have  in  the  Johannine  view  a  very 
practical  recognition  of  sin  in  its  manifold  aspects, 
we  have  no  such  elaborated  doctrine  of  sin  as  in 
Paul.  Some  of  the  statements  on  the  subject  sound 
like  reminiscences  of  Paulinismj  but  appear  isolated, 
and  apart  from  their  general  setting  in  the  Pauline 
view.  Thus  John  says,  "  sin  is  lawlessness  "  (I.  John 
iii.  4),  though  he  has  no  doctrine  of  the  law  in  the 
Pauline  sense  as  the  expression  of  the  eternal  will  of 
God.  The  law  in  John  is  simply  the  Jewish  law — 
"your  law"  (John  viii.  17),  which,  indeed,  bears  wit- 
ness to  Jesus  (John  v.  39  f.),  but  is  not  viewed  in  its 
universal  character  as  by  Paul  in  Rom.  vii.  Conviction 
of  sin  is  wrought,  according  to  John,  not  by  the  law, 
but  by  the  Spirit  (John  xvi.  8). 


lyo     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Another  idea  used  by  John  more  or  less  in  agreement 
with  Paul  is  that  of  "the  flesh."  Apart  from  the 
passages  where  the  term  is  used  simply  in  a  non- 
theological  sense  of  the  material  of  the  body,  we  have 
(John  iii.  5,  6) :  "  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is 
flesh,  and  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit." 
Here  we  might  perhaps  find  no  more  than  the  idea  of 
flesh  as  creaturely  and  weak  in  opposition  to  the  Spirit, 
which  is  Divine ;  but  the  context,  with  its  emphasis  on 
the  necessity  of  the  new  birth,  demands  rather  the  idea 
of  the  flesh  as  positively  sinful.  This  becomes  quite 
clear,  when  we  see  that  the  birth  by  water  and  the  Spirit 
in  John  takes  the  place  of  baptism  and  repentance  in 
the  Synoptic  Gospels;  so  that  on  an  equation  of  the 
two  equivalents,  and  a  removal  of  the  common  term, 
the  Johannine  new  birth  by  the  Spirit  appears  as  the 
equivalent  of  the  Synoptic  repentance,  and  is  therefore  a 
regeneration  not  merely  from  creaturely  weakness,  but  from 
creaturely  sinfulness.  Still  more  clearly  does  the  Pauline 
idea  of  the  flesh  appear  in  John  i.  13,  where  we  have  the 
phrase,  "  the  will  of  the  flesh,"  used  in  opposition  to  the 
will  of  God  ;  and  finally  in  I.  John  ii.  16,  where  the  actual 
Pauline  expression,  "the  lust  of  the  flesh"  (Gal.  v.  16), 
is  used  again  in  a  similar  opposition  (compare  v.  17). 


THE    JOHANNINE    DOCTRINE     171 

The  most  characteristic  idea  in  the  Johannine  doctrine 
of  man  and  sin,  however,  is  that  of  the  "  world."  This, 
in  the  full  sense  in  which  John  uses  it,  is  peculiar  to  his 
writings.  It  has  various  shades  of  meaning.  It  begins 
with  the  notion,  found  in  other  Scriptures,  of  the  world  as 
a  transitory  and  temporal  creation,  in  opposition  to  what 
is  Divine  and  eternal  (I.  John  ii.  17).  Then  it  is  used 
of  the  world  of  humanity,  which  is  the  object  of  Divine 
love  and  pity  (John  iii.  16  ;  I.  John  ii.  2).  But  since 
with  the  idea  of  what  is  transitory  is  connected  that 
of  what  is  sensuous  and  betrays  man  to  sin;  and 
since,  with  the  idea  of  humanity  is  connected  that  of 
human  sinfulness,  these  conceptions  of  the  world  just 
described  easily  pass  over  into  what  is  the  specially 
characteristic  Johannine  notion,  viz.  that  of  the  world 
as  the  sum  of  all  that  is  evil,  and  in  opposition  to  God 
(I.  John  ii.  15).  Thus  we  obtain  the  idea  of  a  lust  of 
the  world  (I.  John  ii.  17),  which  is  parallel  to  that 
of  the  "lust  of  the  flesh,"  previously  mentioned;  and 
we  have  such  statements  as  that  the  whole  world 
lieth  in  the  evil  one  (I.  John  v.  19);  while  finally,  the 
world  appears  as  the  whole  of  humanity  outside  the 
Church,  as  actuated  by  sin,  and  hostile  to  Christ  and 
His  people  (I.  John  iii.  13).     It  is  a  power  to  be  over- 


172     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

come  (I.  John  v.  4,  5),  and  which  can  only  be  overcome 
by  faith  in  Christ.  It  is  this  doctrine  of  the  world,  which 
is  the  real  equivalent  in  John  of  the  Pauline  doctrine  of 
sin.  Two  further  points,  however,  must  be  added,  to 
complete  the  Johannine  doctrine  of  the  present  subject. 
First,  the  devil,  as  embodying  in  one  all  the  evil  ten- 
dencies of  the  world,  occupies  a  great  place  in  the 
Johannine  system  (John  viii.  44,  xiv.  30 ;  I.  John  iii. 
8,  10).  In  the  second  place,  those  who  are  of  the 
world  are  sometimes  spoken  of  as  "  not  of  God,"  some- 
times actually  as  "  the  children  of  the  devil "  (John  viii. 
44;  I.  John  iii.  10).  Here  we  have  an  even  stronger 
parallel  to  the  Pauline  doctrine  of  the  universal  sinful- 
ness of  mankind  apart  from  Christ.  But  just  as  Paul 
recognises,  in  spite  of  his  general  doctrine,  the  existence 
of  some  who  do  by  nature  the  things  of  the  law  (Rom.  ii.), 
so  John  finds  in  the  sinful  world  some  who  are  Christ's 
sheep,  though  not  of  the  Jewish  fold  (John  x.  16). 

§  4.  THE    REALISATION   OF   SALVATION 
BY   GOD    IN   CHRIST 

With  John,  as  with  Jesus,  and  as  with  Paul,  the 
ground  of  salvation  is  the  love  of  God.  "  God  is  love  " 
(I.  John  iv.   8);   the  manifestation  of  this  love  is  the 


REALISATION    OF    SALVATION      173 

gift  of  Jesus  Christ  to  save  the  world  (John  iii.  16). 
The  dominant  idea  in  the  whole  of  the  teaching  of  John 
is  that  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  through  the 
incarnation  (John  i.  1-18;  I.  John  i.  1-4).  The 
revelation  is  not  limited,  as  by  Paul,  to  the  great  crown- 
ing acts  of  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ.  On 
the  contrary,  John  finds  the  revelation  of  God  in  the 
whole  earthly  life  of  Jesus,  in  which  these  acts  take 
their  places  as  elements  in  a  larger  whole.  It  is  not 
so  much  with  the  risen  Christ  as  with  the  earthly 
Christ  that  John  is  concerned;  only  his  object  is  to 
interpret  the  earthly  existence  so  as  to  show  the  Divine 
glory  shining  at  every  point  through  the  veil  of  flesh 
(John  i.  14).  This  is  the  central  purpose  of  his  Gospel. 
In  Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  eternal  Logos  or  essential 
Reason  of  God  became  incarnate.  In  His  miracles  the 
disciples  saw  the  Divine  glory  (John  ii.  11).  His  acts 
on  earth  are  the  acts  of  God ;  for  He  does  nothing  of 
Himself  (John  v.  19).  Whoever  has  seen  Him  has  seen 
the  Father  (John  xiv.  9).  "  I  and  the  Father,"  He  says, 
"  are  one  "  (John  x.  30). 

It  is,  to  use  the  language  of  systematic  theology,  on 
the  Person  rather  than  on  the  work  of  Christ  that  John 
concentrates    attention.     Salvation    is   in    His   Person, 


174     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

through  the  influence  of  which  men  are  brought  into  full 
communion  with  God.  John  expresses  this  in  two  chief 
ways.  Jesus  is  the  light  of  men.  He  is  their  life.  The 
two  ideas  are  closely  connected.  "The  Hfe  was  the 
light  of  men  "  (John  i.  6).  The  ideas  are  rather  aspects 
of  a  common  idea,  than  separate  in  John's  mind.  It 
will,  however,  be  convenient  to  distinguish  them.  As 
the  light  of  men,  Jesus  communicates  the  true  know- 
ledge of  God  (John  i.  i8) :  as  the  life  of  men,  He  com- 
municates to  them  the  life  of  God  (John  x.  lo).  On 
the  latter  aspect  John  lays  special  emphasis.  It  is 
expressed  again  and  again  in  different  metaphors.  Jesus 
is  the  bread  of  life  (John  vi.  35,  48).  He  is  the  true 
vine.(Johnxv.  i).  He  gives  the  living  water  (John  iv.  10). 
In  the  consideration  of  Jesus,  both  as  the  light  and  as 
the  life,  John  emphasises  His  humanity  (John  i.  14). 
Apart  from  this  there  is  no  vision  of  God  (John  i.  18). 
Similarly,  it  is  through  the  humanity  of  Jesus  that  the 
life  of  God  is  communicated  to  men.  The  bread  of 
life  is  His  flesh  which  He  gives  for  the  life  of  the  world 
(John  vi.  51),  or  with  even  stronger  emphasis  on  the 
humanity  :  "  He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my 
blood,  hath  eternal  life''  (John  vi.  54). 

While  thus  the  chief  emphasis  is  laid  by  John  on  the 


REALISATION    OF    SALVATION      175 

Person  of  Jesus  as  mediating  the  Divine  light  and  Hfe, 
in  subordination  to  this  His  work,  including  the  acts  of 
His  ministry  as  well  as  His  death,  occupies  an  im- 
portant place.  Jesus  reveals  His  glory  by  His  miracles 
(John  ii.  11).  The  words  He  speaks  are  spirit  and  life 
(John  vi.  63).  Finally,  the  death  of  Jesus  is  the  mani- 
festation of  His  love  to  His  own  (John  x.  1 1-18,  xv.  13). 
This  is  the  characteristic  Johannine  interpretation  of  the 
death  of  Jesus.  We  have  also  the  idea  of  Christ's  death 
as  a  means  whereby  He  attains  to  greater  influence  in 
the  world,  drawing  men  to  Himself  by  the  power  of  the 
cross  (John  xii.  23,  24,  32).  Another  conception  strongly 
emphasised  in  John  is  that  the  death  of  Christ  is  a  victory 
over  the  devil,  and  thus  the  destruction  of  the  power  of 
evil.  Christ  by  His  faithfulness  unto  death  shows  that 
Satan  has  nothing  in  Him,  judges  the  world,  and  so 
enables  His  people  likewise  to  overcome  both  the  world 
and  the  devil  (see  John  xii.  31,  xiv.  30;  and  compare 
I  John  iii.  8,  v.  4).  Finally,  there  appears  or  is  suggested 
in  John  several  times  the  idea  of  Christ's  death  as  a 
sacrifice  for  sin,  never,  however,  with  any  great  distinct- 
ness ;  nor  does  the  conception  connect  itself  very  closely 
with  the  specifically  Johannine  cycle  of  ideas,  as  it  does 
with  the  Pauline  cycle.     The  most  important  passages 


176     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

are  I  John  i.  7,  ii.  2.  It  is  noticeable  that  the  special 
forms  of  expression  made  use  of  connect  themselves 
rather  with  Hebrews  than  with  Paul. 


§  5.  THE  SUBJECTIVE  APPROPRIATION   OF 
SALVATION 

As  regards  the  subjective  appropriation  of  salvation, 
in  John  as  in  Paul  the  value  of  faith  is  emphasised. 
The  noun  "  faith  "  is,  indeed,  only  found  in  the  Johan- 
nine  writings  in  a  single  passage  (I.  John  v.  4) ;  but 
the  verb  from  the  same  Greek  root,  rendered  in  English 
"  believe,"  is  ubiquitous.  The  difference  here  between 
John  and  Paul  is,  however,  more  than  one  of  language. 
**The  Johannine  'faith'  has  its  deepest  roots,  in 
common  with  the  Pauline  'faith,'  in  the  general 
Synoptic  idea  of  faith  in  the  sense  of  trust,  and  in 
its  close  relation  to  the  idea  of  'deliverance,'  or  of 
'salvation.'  Apart  from  this,  however,  the  idea,  so 
characteristically  brought  to  a  point  in  the  Pauline 
epistles,  tends  in  John  again  to  its  original,  and  signifies 
in  the  first  place  simply  the  trust  with  which  one 
receives  the  word  of  any  one — whether  of  God  (John 
V.   24  ;  I  John  v.   to\  or  of  Jesus   (John  viii.  45),  or 


SUBJECTIVE    APPROPRIATION     177 

of  the  Scripture  (John  ii.  22),  or  of  a  prophet  (John 
xii.  38;  I.  John  iv.  i).  The  difference  between  the 
Synoptic  and  the  Johannine  conceptions  of  faith  lies, 
however,  in  the  difference  of  the  world  of  ideas  with 
which,  in  the  Synoptics  and  John,  faith  is  brought  into 
connection.  What  is  here  most  peculiar  to  John  is  the 
tendency  almost  to  identify  the  object  of  faith  with 
certain  doctrines  or  cycles  of  ideas  (compare  John 
xi.  21:  *  Believest  thou  this  ? ').  Since,  however,  these 
cycles  of  ideas  all  revolve  about  the  Person  of  Christ, 
in  contrast  to  the  Synoptics  faith  in  John  also  enters 
into  a  special  relation  to  Christ,  the  bearer  of  revela- 
tion. Jesus  speaks  from  time  to  time  of  faith  in  His 
person  (compare  'believe  on  the  Son,'  John  iii.  16,  18, 
36,  xvi.  40  ;  I.  John  v.  10),  by  which  is  intended  the 
confident  assertion  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  (John 
vi.  29),  is  sent  of  God  (John  xi.  42,  xvii.  8,  21),  or 
come  from  God  (John  xvi.  27,  30)  that  He  derives  from 
above  (John  viii.  23),  is  one  with  the  Father  (John 
xiv.  10,  11),  that  He  is  the  all-decisive  person  in  general 
(John  viii.  24,  xiii.  9).  ('Believest  thou  that  I  am?') 
Faith  is  put  simply  *  in  Him '  (John  vii.  5,  xii.  42),  in 
the  sense  of  a  recognition  of  what  He  claims  to  be. 
If  with    such    formulae   is   interchanged    'faith   in   the 


178     MAN,    SIN,    AND    SALVATION 

Son  of  God'  (John  i.  12,  ii.  23,  iii.  18;  I  John  v.  13), 
this  happens  because  the  entire  content  of  faith  lies 
in  the  name  of  Him  on  whom  one  believes.  Accord- 
ing to  this,  faith  is  not  reposed  in  a  person  without 
any  underlying  basis,  but  on  that  which  the  name 
peculiarly  belonging  to  the  person  says  of  Him,  what 
it  makes  of  Him.  The  faith  so  formulated  signifies, 
accordingly,  the  conviction  that  Jesus  is,  according  to 
His  witness  of  Himself,  the  Son  of  God "  (Holtzmann, 
Neutestamentliche  Theologie^  ii.  484). 

After  this  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  in  John, 
just  as  in  the  later  Pauline  epistles,  the  idea  of  know- 
ledge receives  great  emphasis,  and  becomes  almost  as 
important  in  the  appropriation  of  salvation  as  faith  itself 
(compare  especially  John  xvii.  3  :  "  This  is  life  eternal, 
to  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  Thou  hast  sent  ").  This  knowledge  is  indeed,  as 
Titius  says,  always  knowledge  based  on  faith  ( Glaubens- 
erkennt?iiss)\  all  the  same,  the  greater  stress  on  knowledge 
that  we  find  in  the  typical  form  of  Paulinism  cannot  be 
mistaken.  If  now  we  have  "  we  have  believed  and 
known"  (John  vi.  69 ;  (/!  x.  38),  faith  preceding  know- 
ledge ;  we  have  again  "known  and  believed"  (John 
xvii.  8;  I.  John  iv.  16),  knowledge  preceding  faith. 


SUBJECTIVE    APPROPRIATION    179 

Finally,  the  mystical  element  which  forms  so  great 
a  part  of  the  idea  of  faith  in  Paulinism  does  not 
appear  in  John  under  this  rubric.  John  coins  instead 
a  terminology  of  his  own,  the  key-note  of  which  is  the 
word  "abide"  (John  xv.  i  f.).  Union  with  Christ  is 
expressed  by  the  thought  that  Christ  abides  in  us,  and 
we  in  Him,  and  the  ethical  bearing  of  this  union  is 
strongly  brought  out,  as  we  have  already  seen.  Here, 
however,  from  the  subjective  side,  what  we  have  to 
observe  is  that  this  abiding  in  Christ  is  enjoined  on 
the  Christian,  as  the  condition  of  Christ's  abiding  in 
Him,  and  of  consequent  fruit-bearing.  We  have,  then, 
the  complete  equivalent  of  the  Pauline  idea  that  by  faith 
we  are  united  to  Christ,  and  thus  dead  with  Him  to  sin 
and  alive  to  righteousness.  Another  way  in  which  John 
expresses  the  same  idea  is  that  of  eating  and  drinking 
the  flesh  and  blood  of  Christ  (John  vi.  53-56),  a  form 
of  speech  which  goes  along  with  the  figurative  descrip- 
tion of  Christ  as  the  bread  of  life.  In  this  form  of 
mysticism,  however,  it  is  not  the  ethical  bearing,  but  rather 
the  direct  religious  significance  of  union  with  Christ,  that 
is  brought  out  (John  vi.  54,  58).  In  John  vi.  56  it  is 
noteworthy  that  this  form  of  expression  passes  over  into, 
and  is  identified  with,  the  other  of  abiding  in  Christ. 


INDEX 


Anthropology,  21,  33,  63,  100  f 
Atonement,  37,  73,   119.     See  also 
Sacrifice 

Baptism,  29,  126,  145 

Day  of  Yahweh,  4,  7,  15 
Death,  24,  100,  no,  152 

Expiation,    12,    14,   119.      See 
Sacrifice 

Faith,   49,   117,   127,   136,  139, 

145,  153,  157,  161,  176 
Fall  (of  Adam),  24,  39,  100 
Flesh,  21  f,  loi  f,  170 
Forgiveness,  i3,  58  f,  116 

God,    (idea  of),   i,   5,   18,  42  f, 

80  f 
Good  works,  140,  157 
Grace,  115 

Judgment,  7,  15,  29,  34,  36,  83  f, 

129,  142,  147,  158,  163  f 
Justification,  16,  91  f,  115  f,  158 

Kingdom  of  God,  7, 15,  28  f,  44  f 
Knowledge,  136,  178 

Law,  10, 106  f,  112  f,  132,  157, 169 


Man.     See  Anthropology 
Merit,  38,  115 

Messiah,  8,  31  f,  64  f,  78,  154 
Millennium,  30,  155 

Parusia,  78,  83  f,  140,  147,  160, 

163  f 
Punishment  (of  sins),  3,  6,  24,  56  f, 

no  f 

Reconciliation,  99,  116 
Repentance,  50,  58  f,  79 
Resurrection,  27,  29,  34,  84  f,  96, 

154 
Righteousness,  5,  51  f 

Sacrifice,  12  f,  17,  75,  119,  135, 

144,  150.  175 
Salvation,  i  f,  7,  8,  16,  18,  19,  ao, 

26,  36,  45  f,  78f,  82  f,  131  f,  137  f, 

141,  146  f,  154,  158,  160 
Sheol,  25,  34,  142 
Sin,  3  f,  5  f,  20,  38,  54  f,  99  f,  152, 

158,  162  f,  169  f 
Sonship,  48  f,  93,  167 
Spirit,  18,  79,  91  f,  95  f,  133,  i69f 

Union  with  Christ,  gx,  123  f,  167  f, 

179 

World,  171 


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